Famed snake trackers from India latest weapon in Florida war on pythons

Miami Herald ^ | 1/26/2017 | JENNY STALETOVICH

[tekrat]

What Judas snakes, snake-sniffing dogs and even hunters from around the globe have struggled to accomplish may finally be pulled off by a pair of singing snake catchers from India: solving the riddle for finding Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades.

In just two weeks this month, the two tribesmen from Southern India, working with theUniversity of Florida, caught 14 pythons. That included a monster 16-foot female holed up in the ruins of the old Nike missile base on Key Largo.

Irula trackers and biologists discovered this 16-foot female python, along with three other snakes, holed up in a 27-foot long, 18-inch wide shaft at the old Nike missile base in Key Largo last week.Courtesy of Joe Wasilewski

For perspective, consider last year’s second Python Challenge, an annual contest to draw attention to Florida’s python problem. The hunt attracted 1,000 hunters, most of them amateurs. Over a month, they managed to bag just 106 snakes. The year before, hunters snagged 68.

[Defiant]

I love learning things on FR. I never heard of that tribe, I always figured the Indians were the original occupants, later supplemented by the Aryans.

[CodeToad]

“There was a bounty.”

There was a prize for winning teams, who also had to pay $25/person or $75/team.

There was no bounty, only a prize.

[Fireone]

Snakeskin boots cost a fortune, I think there’s a use for them.

[Bratch]

[riverrunner]

Restrictions and license fees and time periods small bounty ect lead to a mostly failed program.

Offer a large enough bounty with no restrictions no lic required.

People well go snake hunting.

[BipolarBob]

They should have got the Shirishamas from the Amazon.

[Safetgiver]

Give a bunch of Florida boys $100 per snake and there won’t be any in a month.....They already do that and no such results. I was in the glades during the snake hunting push of 2011 and talked to a number of the hunters. One ol’ fisherman I talked to said he lives in the Glades and all this snake shit is made up so the wildlife service and botanists can get government grants. Fake News? You decide. Now iguanas..another problem I personally saw.

[Ray76]

You’re right.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130113044149/http://pythonchallenge.org/faqs.aspx

At the time it was hyped as a bounty, but it’s not.

FWC needs to get off this “management” nonsense and lean forward: year round, no permit, bounty. Same for the iguanas and the giant snails. They gotta go.

[MarineBrat]

One of the problems with a bounty system on the snakes is that it provides an incentive for people to guarantee that there will be LOTS of these snakes around... if you catch my drift.

[Ace's Dad]

Same for the iguanas

I know a few "conchs" down in the Keys that hunt iguana with air rifles (powerful air rifles). While iguana are not killers, they absolutely destroy flower and vegetable gardens. And they are not a native species.

[usurper]

Not sure what they do with the snakes once they catch them.

Skins are great for cowboy boots, shoes, belts, handbags ect. Meat tastes like chicken only better. Just batter and fry in light oil.

[martin_fierro]

Send in this *#$&%)(*in' guy to catch those #$&^#$(in' snakes

[jch10]

I don’t care how much it costs!

[jch10]

And required expensive tools.

[libstripper]

In that case, I have a,personal story you’ll really appreciate. A few years ago I had a major landscaping project done on my exurban lot near Knoxville, TN. The contractor laid down a fine nylon mesh to hold the grass in the new lawn. Unfortunately, two immature Rat Snakes got caught in the mesh. I saved each by getting down on the ground and cutting it out with the scissors in my Swiss Army Knife.

[Rebelbase]

Any insight about what was said in #27?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3516996/posts?page=27#27

[SgtHooper]

One snake per day!? Looooo-sers!

[SgtHooper]

It needs to be more like 300$ per snake, because you need 2-3 guys just in case a big one latches on. Make it worthwhile.

[GladesGuru]

Between turf battles and agency agendas, snake hunts are largely foredoomed to failure. Asking people to walk instead of use airboats or buggys is asinine. A friend developed the Urban Attack Team concept for delta Force, and dropped a team into a part of the Glades. They won't be back, due to injuries from eroded karst landscape and other issues.

ParcMan and the Possum Police want the snakes captured, not shot on sight and hunters had to walk into Everglades National Park. The head of the Airboat Association told me that upon hearing the rules, he asked the ParcPerson “What planet you from?” and refused the hunt offer.

IMHO, hunting may help some, but the snakes are here to stay, barring a species specific disease. However, allowing unlimited hunting, anyway, any time, with a bounty based on length, and possibly on snake gender would reduce the numbers.

I suggest cutting the AgencyPersons and their agencies funding to pay the bounties.

[Thibodeaux]

Florida will never be rid of pythons.

I have driven the Tamiami trail from west to east several times. The south side are a state park and everglades. The vegetation is impenetrable. where you can’t go, you can’t find much less catch pythons.

Collier seminole State park forms the western flank. I asked a naturalist if there were pythons in the park. She put her finger to her lips and went shhhhh!