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Python hunter: Miami man takes on Glades swamp serpents-judicious employment of a 12-gauge
miamiherald ^ | 08.08.09 | CURTIS MORGAN

Posted on 08/10/2009 12:12:52 PM PDT by JoeProBono

Nobody has killed more Burmese pythons in the Everglades than Bob Hill.

Long before the state launched its new python patrol, Hill was quietly -- aside from judicious employment of a 12-gauge -- racking up a count of constrictor carcasses likely to stand for some time.

The patrol has bagged six in three weeks. Hill figures he's ``dispatched'' 35 this year alone, and he's been in the dispatching business for the South Florida Water Management District since 2004.

That was the first time a rattled boss rang him from the L-67, a flood-control levee deep in the Everglades. Hill, a soft-spoken Miamian with a half-century of swamp savvy, chuckled recalling it.

``He said, `Bobby, I've got a snake here. It's as big as my truck.' ''

Some 300 pythons later, the side job has turned into full-time work. And Hill's uncanny nose for the giant snakes -- sometimes, he can literally smell them -- has turned the modest maintenance worker into not only the state's top exterminator of the exotic menace, but a leading authority on their habits....


TOPICS: Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: python; snake
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To: billhilly
Maybe something like this.


21 posted on 08/10/2009 1:20:44 PM PDT by Peter Horry (Never were abilities so much below mediocrity so well rewarded - John Randolph)
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To: Born Conservative

Beat you by thaaat much (5 secs)


22 posted on 08/10/2009 1:22:08 PM PDT by TNMountainMan
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To: Peter Horry

The stainless steel might be useful in the Everglades, but the pistol grip would only amuse the locals. I once had a stainless steel pump, Winchester Model twelve, that I carried when sailing in the Bahamas That was back in the bad old days of drug runners who stole boats and killed the owners. It had a full load of oo buck when I was on board.


23 posted on 08/10/2009 1:48:54 PM PDT by billhilly
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To: Peter Horry

The stainless steel might be useful in the Everglades, but the pistol grip would only amuse the locals. I once had a stainless steel pump, Winchester Model twelve, that I carried when sailing in the Bahamas That was back in the bad old days of drug runners who stole boats and killed the owners. It had a full load of oo buck when I was on board.


24 posted on 08/10/2009 1:49:21 PM PDT by billhilly
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To: JoeProBono

A bounty on all alien species would cause them to be eradicated in short order. I don’t know why it has not been done with species such as nutria.


25 posted on 08/10/2009 2:20:57 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Palin/Hunter 2012)
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To: JoeProBono

26 posted on 08/10/2009 5:04:34 PM PDT by Daffynition ("...... we are about to be czarred and fettered." ~ alterum ictum faciam.)
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To: TNMountainMan

You read faster than me by 5 seconds. :)


27 posted on 08/10/2009 5:45:26 PM PDT by Born Conservative (Working hard so those on public assistance don't have to.)
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