Posted on 05/30/2009 4:15:21 PM PDT by JoeProBono
The population of Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said on Thursday. Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat. "They eat things that we care about," said Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park biologist, as he showed a captured, 15-foot (4.6-meter) Burmese python to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was on his first fact-finding mission to the Everglades since the Obama administration took office.
With Snow maintaining a strong grip on its head, the massive snake hissed angrily at Salazar and the other federal officials who gathered around it at a recreation area off Alligator Alley in the vast saw grass prairie. It took two other snake wranglers to control the python's body. "A snake this size could eat a small deer or a bobcat without too much trouble," Snow told Salazar before the secretary boarded an airboat for a tour of the Everglades.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Remind me again of why I was thinking of moving to Florida. Taxes?
Because you like snakes?
The species have battled with increasing frequency — scientists have documented four encounters in the last three years. The encroachment of Burmese pythons into the Everglades could threaten an $8 billion restoration project and endanger smaller species, said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor. The gators have had to share their territory with a python population that has swelled over the past 20 years after owners dropped off pythons they no longer wanted in the Everglades. The Asian snakes have thrived in the wet, hot climate.
I sure hope I survive the other list and make it to '12.
The idiots that released those things should be imprisoned IMO. Now that pythons and monitor lizards are established down there we’ll probably never get rid of them unless southern Florida has extended deep freezes, highly unlikely.
Wow! Properly treated, 150,000 python hides would significantly cut the price of nice python skin boots.
Clearly there is a free market solution for this...hehehe
Why are those snakes still among the living?
That big guy would make several pair of nice boots! Time for a bounty on these beasts?
Skip Snow displaying one invasive snake to another.
We have an invasive snake population in Washington, so the invasive snakes or Florida are appropriate for the times we live in.
Ken Salazar is nothing more than a usless “tool”!
Somebodycares about the Key Largo wood rat?
federal taxes are 50% for self employed types... and they are going to climb to 65% when the dems expire the Bush & Reagan tax cuts (5 and 10+% each)
coming to florida will do you no good. you’ll be paying 2/3 of your check to 0bama so he can hand it directly to slack ass types that have been doing crack/pot while you’ve been working.
if you are going to move, consider the bahamas (0% tax British rule) or the isle of man (10-15% tax with a 100k euro limit, British rule)
of course, you will still owe federal income tax on your worldwide income... even while living outside the country for the next 4 years (and yes, the illegals will continue to not pay taxes while you continue to pay for their services... from another country)
i’m still trying to find a way to not owe taxes. i have asked ,u congresscritters office how i can relinquish my citizenship, thereby not owing the tax money... and was not supplied with an answer
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