Andrew Zimmern recommends prodigious portions of pickled python.
Posted on 07/17/2009 6:08:47 AM PDT by dennisw
The python posse is turning into a brigade.
The federal government on Thursday said it would open up Big Cypress National Wildlife Refuge, which borders Everglades National Park, to a pilot program allowing licensed hunters to ''terminate'' any python they encounter.
It's part of a broad program to control the invasive snakes, laid out Thursday by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The announcement comes days after Florida Sen. Bill Nelson called for a controlled hunt in Everglades National Park and state wildlife managers announced they would permit expert trappers to kill snakes on state marshland.
The program includes many things park scientists have been doing for years to battle the Burmese import: outreach and hot lines for the public; studies of python movements, habits and threats to the ecosystem; and programs to design python traps and sexual scents that might be used to bait them.
But Salazar, who pledged to tackle the snake problem during his first visit to the Everglades in May, also vowed to seek more funding to expand efforts.
For instance, federal scientists are working with the University of Florida to develop drone aircraft with thermal imaging to pinpoint the difficult-to-detect snakes.
The park also might add to the dozen agents who have removed hundreds of pythons during the past few years, and will consider whether to expand the state's expert posse program into Everglades National Park.
One hurdle is a park prohibition against hunting. But the pilot program will open federal land in the Big Cypress, where seasonal hunting and guns are allowed. Because no laws protect python, there is technically nothing to prohibit properly licensed hunters from shooting them now, but the program would formalize the effort and data collection.
''We are committed to aggressively combating this threat, including having trained and well-supervised volunteers hunt down and remove snakes,'' Salazar said in a release.
Eradicating python will be difficult. Scientists say less than 5 percent of the estimated 100,000-plus snakes in the park are ever seen. Hunting alone likely won't do it. ''There is no one silver bullet,'' said Paul Souza, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Ayuh, wanderin around. Typical Vermont behavior. How's Bernie workin' out for ye?
Bad luck your state bordering New York and MA. I reckon that's how you got Bernie and Leahy. At least your Vermont commies don't try and hide it, like our Maine RINOs.
Exactlty, put a bounty on them like they did in the western US with wolves, etc.
Problem solved.
OR even better spread the story that certain Florida Pythons parts are an aphrodisiac or improve male stamina and sell hunting trips to wealthy Asians.
***We need a ‘Python Czar’!!!***
We already have Obama and his cohorts strangling America!
I wish I could get paid for making up numbers.
Pythons are non-native. Kill them all. Naturally the Watermelons are up in arms over this. "Oh, the poor python! We can't kill them!!"
As may be. Michigan doesn’t have any snakes large enough to be worth cooking up in anything other than a survival situation so I have no experience at cooking them. I do have some experience at cooking things people didn’t think they liked and changing their minds. Like liver.
You grill a whole lake trout? How big is your grill?
Not from VT. Bernie was running Burlington during the time I lived there. My God, what a disaster that state has become. My mom still lives there, and she just cringes and keeps to herself way out in the country.
My cousin comes down to MA (where I live) and she just drives me crazy with her arrogant liberal BS.
Every year I go on a trip to the deep south or west..and it makes me comfortable enough to get through the rest of the year with the idiots in MA.
their=they’re.
Andrew Zimmern recommends prodigious portions of pickled python.
I estimate it at 4.38% of the 350,000-plus snakes in the park. My estimate is based on the indisputable fact that many snakes leave the park at night,others are on vacation, or on loan to other parks, and that when questioned, many snakes lie because they are undocumented.
Also illegal alien Burmese Pythons are eating a lot of baby alligators, which eventually will cause the cowboy boot and pimp shoe business to move to China.
Cooking lake trout taken from Lake Superior, IMHO, is strictly optional. Cure filets for a couple of days in the fridge with some salt, brown sugar and spices, slice thin and serve on rye bread. Yum!
Thank you, Bubba.
I’ll wager you that the Chineese could figure out how to make it tasty and tender.
“But aren’t snakes cold blooded? How will this work?”
It will bring in many grants and lots of money - that is how it will work.
“For instance, federal scientists are working with the University of Florida to develop drone aircraft with thermal imaging to pinpoint the difficult-to-detect snakes.”
If pythons are cold blooded and assume the temperature of their surroundings how will this work?
“Cooking lake trout taken from Lake Superior, IMHO, is strictly optional.”
Optional only if one likes fish tapeworms. Raw fresh water fish are a good host for fish tapeworms. Man can host ‘em, too.
Been done since time started, feral cats included!
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