Think sharks are scary? There’s a new critter swimming in Biscayne Bay [Burmese python]

Miami Herald ^ | December 27, 2016 | Jenny Staletovich

[C19fan]

South Florida’s most aggressive invasive species has found a new way to grab headlines: slither atop a research platform in Biscayne Bay.

Last month, a kayaker spied a 9-foot Burmese python wrapped around part of a platform more than a half mile offshore in Biscayne National Park usually inhabited by sunning cormorants. The sighting was a first for the park and another worrisome sign that the state’s out-of-control pythons are getting more adept at inhabiting the state’s salty fringes. In September, state wildlife biologists confirmed for the first time that the snakes are now breeding in the Keys.

[C19fan]

A new alpha predator is in town.

[Mr. K]

Offer $10 per foot bounty, problem solved.

I could use a new pair of python boots.

[allendale]

Tell you how to get rid of of the invasive python species that is plaguing south Florida. Cats are wily, effective hunters. Right now feral cats when captured are usually put down. Instead why not neuter them, feed them for two weeks with nothing but python meat and then release them in the Everglades. The pyhtons and their nests would then have a predator. Don’t be so sure that a hungry cat pack would come off second best against even a mature python.

[Vigilanteman]

Don't know why that tried and true idea has lost so much favor.

Back in the late 1960s, the Minnesota county where my brother and I did farm work every summer for Dad, decided there were too many gophers and announced a 25 cent bounty for gopher tails. They made it convenient too. Every town with a population of 500 or more designated a local merchant (usually the same place which sold fishing licenses) to process the bounty claims.

Further, even with traps costing 75 cents each at the local hardware store, my brother and I pooled our funds to buy 10 traps which produced a daily yield of about 70%.

Midway into the first week, the traps were paid off and we were making pure profit of $1.75 per day just trapping gophers in our spare time. By the end of the summer, we had $150 to split in addition to our farm work earnings. $75 bought a whole lot of stuff in those days.

At the end of the next summer, the county decided the gophers weren't such a big problem anymore and discontinued the program. It seems a lot of kids were doing exactly the same thing my brother and I were doing.

Furthermore, our cats dined well on gopher meat. What the cats didn't eat were fed to the hogs.

[Phlyer]

There was a article a few years ago in Wall Street Journal about the invasive brown tree snakes on Guam.

They offered a bounty, and it was only about a month before they found someone breeding brown tree snakes in their back yard for the bounty.

I actually agree with you, but there needs to be some sort of proviso that it is for snakes 4 feet long or longer or something to make it not profitable to raise for the bounty.

Of course, the problem is that would lead to a flock of ordinary citizens actually using the Everglades, and as we all know, places like that are only for government agents and their cronies.

[EinNYC]

Offer $10 per foot bounty, problem solved.

There have been python-hunting competitions in Florida for at least the past 2 years. The results were very disappointing. A few dozen snakes were caught, I think. Not hundreds or thousands. They are very hard to find in the swamps and trees of Florida.

[Mr. K]

I’ve never heard of any- are they advertised well?

[Mr. K]

Yes I had thought of that- that is why I put the ‘per foot’ price tag

You got to make it less profitable for doing just that- breeding for the sake of collecting the bounty.

Also make it VERY illegal to breed what you're trying to get rid of AND put a very large bounty on breeders.

Last, you have to make it a short-lived program- 3 months and then stop. Make it impossible to profitably breed in that amount of time AND you encourage people to act RIGHT NOW, or miss out.

[RitchieAprile]

no snake is illegal. these are undocumented reptiles.

[rb22982]

$75 in the late 60s is roughly $550 in today’s dollars or ~30k/yr.

[blueunicorn6]

Maybe they should turn loose some Cobras to kill the pythons.

[gundog]

Cats would loaf on the road eating mice and frogs ‘til a ‘gator or snake got ‘ em.

[randita]

FL has had a python hunt in the Everglades for the past four years. It has not made a dent in the population. They are very elusive and have no natural enemies.

Pythons are wiping out the small mammal population in the Everglades. Putting a hurt on birds as well.

They are experimenting with pheromones to see if they can lure males into traps. That’s probably more promising than hunters going sloshing around in the Everglades which presents its own set of ecological problems.

[Vision]

Don't know why that tried and true idea has lost so much favor.

Because it doesn't make people dependent on government.

[fso301]

There have been python-hunting competitions in Florida for at least the past 2 years. The results were very disappointing. A few dozen snakes were caught, I think. Not hundreds or thousands. They are very hard to find in the swamps and trees of Florida.

Might be due to time of year the hunts were held. We visited South Florida a few years ago during Christmas. To us it was cool but frigid by local standards. Snakes, especially tropical snakes won't be active during cool weather

[fso301]

FL has had a python hunt in the Everglades for the past four years. It has not made a dent in the population. They are very elusive and have no natural enemies.

I imagine a good fire would cook a few.

[Phlyer]

Jerry Pournelle wrote an interesting book in which some young adults did something stupid (which they were egged into doing by an older adult, for political reasons). The younger adults were killed as a result and there was a huge public outcry (in the book) about their 'needless' deaths.

The response of some of those who were defending themselves against a threat they thought was real (but was not, which is part of the young adults' stupidity) was, "Think of it as evolution in action."

I could see a lot of idiots wandering through the swamps, being eaten by alligators or just drowning in mud, because they were after a bounty like you propose, and with which I agree. I'm sure there would be some sort of hysterical response about the 'needless' loss of lives.

My response would be: Think of it as evolution in action.

[Let's Roll]

“Because it doesn’t make people dependent on government.”

And because it is just so mean or unfair or something ...

[fso301]

A good old fashioned blast of arctic air would set the python (and other invasives) population back at least ten years. Follow that up with large scale prescribed burns and bounty hunts to finish off the remainder.

[allendale]

You are underestimating the inherent ferocity of cats. When they are hungry, they will hunt eat. If a pack come across a python, would not bet against the cats.