Posted on 08/04/2023 7:33:30 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
The Florida Python Challenge draws in hundreds of participants each year from as far away as Canada, Belgium and Latvia who are charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, including up to $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money.
Recent Python Challenge winners include a deaf science teacher who bagged a nearly 16ft snake with his bare hands, a father-and-son duo who rapidly despatched 41 snakes and a 19-year-old who said he would use his $10,000 prize to buy better snake-spotting lights for his truck.
..."Once it slithered out in the road, I got to see the massive size of this thing and realised we're getting into a fight a little bit more intense than I thought we were getting into," he says.
After they caught it, the snake was declared the largest in the state's history.
Some of the snakes he kills are brought to school to show his curious pupils, who are also deaf. Sometimes they dissect them as a class project.
"My students are always really excited when I do that."
... Authorities encourage people around the world to buy python leather from Florida, and discourage hunters from eating them due to their high levels of mercury. But that advice doesn't stop a few dedicated hunters from making everything from python jerky to snake-egg cookies.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
It seems to me that this is a contest worthy of investment.
They should also extend the contest into parts, with different prizes. Longest, heaviest, largest numbers, and I’m sure there are other variables.
The top ten of each category should get prizes.
That is one bony-looking actress.
No wonder the snakes there can’t get enough to eat.
—”How far north can these things live?”
I do not have a solid answer, but certainly hope to be safe here in DuPage County, Northern Illinois???
Need I be concerned about alleged global warming extending its range?
That said, a fair size python was found in a local forest preserve a few years back.
Of course, they quickly announced it was a former pet that had escaped or was released.
—”Used to be you could make thermometers out of them.”
No wonder they are now such a problem.
Mercury thermometers are about extinct at the consumer level.
—Am I the only one who now needs a giant python thermometer?”
I prefer type K or type T thermocouples for most of my needs.
Cheap, have a wide range, and quick response.
And no mercury.
Pythons are indeed high in mercury level. About 4 ppm on average.
To put this in perspective: levels in food above 1.5ppm are not considered suitable for consumption.
Apparently the Everglades are an area high in (inorganic) mercury. This mercury is converted to organic methylmercury by bacteria. Subsequently these bacteria are consumed by protozoans, protozoans by small invertebrates, and so on.
Because of methylmercury’s relatively high solubility in gut and neural membranes it gets more concentrated in each step of the food chain.
Pythons are apex predators, so a high mercury level is not that unexpected, but the levels were substantially higher in comparison with gators in the same area.
The reasons are not clear, and speculative:
Either they’re eating a lot of alligator to get [levels] that high or — more likely — pythons are very incapable of ridding themselves of methylmercury that they get exposed to in their diet.
Hey, let’s capture some and send them to DC to clear the swamp there.
Dress like that in a rain forest.
I think bugs would be a bigger problem.
They get longer on hot days. Oh wait, it’s south Florida….
I’m thinking of a nice pair of Cowboy boots.
Gun holsters
It's always a chuckle when we here in the Sunshine State read stuff like this, from folks who just ain't from around here, and the idea of gators and big snakes as part of the landscape leaves them somewhat gobsmacked.
And let's not forget iguanas...
My Python boot is too tight.
L
Pythons vs. Gators. The game’s on!
WOW!
I first thought the photo was fake!
Perhaps a bit of forced perspective, not much.
Maybe someone can post that picture of the huge gator and python that both died trying to eat the other. ?
“Here Fido! Fido! C’mere little puppy, fetch the slippers.”
I’m in Winnebago County. Last week someone posted locally that he had his pet python escape from his home and to BOLO for it. I haven’t heard if it’s been caught yet. I’m sure it’s nowhere near the size of that monster in Florida, but it still gives me the willies thinking about it…
Holy crap, that’s Komodo Dragon sized!
Snakes have a lot of bones too... In old Florida we use to eat rattlesnake - which tastes like chicken. Gator tail’s mild too. And wild pig? Parasites on four feet...
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