Posted on 07/15/2022 1:00:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
Under the cover of darkness, two wildlife officials raided an invasive python's nest in a South Florida swamp and successfully wrestled 19 wriggling hatchlings and their mother into a bag and out of the protected habitat. The next day, one of the officials captured a second breeding female — measuring an astounding 17.5 feet (5.3 meters) long — from the exact same spot.
Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) were first introduced to Florida in the 1970s and have since established large breeding populations in southern regions of the state. The humongous snakes usually grow to be about 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) long, although recently, officials captured a nearly 18 foot (5.4 m) long python near Naples that weighed 215 pounds (97 kilograms), Live Science previously reported. With few natural predators in Florida, the invasive snakes pose a threat to many native birds, mammals and even alligators, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission(opens in new tab) (FWC).
For this reason, the FWC and other organizations use a number of strategies to find, capture and remove pythons from South Florida ecosystems; this includes hiring contractors to survey snake-infested swampland and capture any pythons they find.
Alex McDuffie is one such contractor, hired by the South Florida Water Management District. Just before midnight on Monday (July 11), McDuffie spotted a newly-hatched Burmese python youngster in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a 729,000-acre (2,950 square km) freshwater swamp ecosystem located in Ochopee, Florida, north of Everglades National Park. While tracking the snake, he ran into FWC Officer Matthew Rubenstein, who was patrolling the park and promptly joined the snake hunt, according to a statement(opens in new tab) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
That would be too efficient, too inexpensive, and would not let politicians funnel money out to their buddies.
There are plenty of existing bounties on the pythons in FL.
It’s pissing into the wind though. The only way they’ll ever be eradicated is if it hits 30 degrees in Miami, and lasts for a few days.
That ain’t happening either.
“Burmese pythons are invasive in Florida. “
Not any more Troy Landry caught all of ‘em !!!!!
...two wildlife officials raided an invasive python's nest in a South Florida swamp and successfully wrestled 19 wriggling hatchlings and their mother into a bag and out of the protected habitat. The next day, one of the officials captured a second breeding female — measuring an astounding 17.5 feet (5.3 meters) long — from the exact same spot.
They're squeezing out native species.
There were a few pythons sold in South Florida as “exotic pets” in the 70s and 80s, but near zero in the wild. (In the Everglades as breeding pairs.)
But! The hurricane south of Miami wiped out out two pet stores in Homestead and released all of their pythons into one small area right at the edge of the Everglades. A perfect combination for unrestricted breeding at 12-15 new snakes per year per pair.
If it was Hurricane Andrew, that’s been 20 years that they’ve had to breed. Eewww.
30 years...
“Snakes! ... Why did it have to be sankes?”
Right. (Damn virtual keyboards! I miss my BlackBerry.)
Pet stores......................
Wild pythons.........................
Tastes like chicken?.............................
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