Free Republic

The Burmese python continues to be found in and around Biscayne National Park. A kayaker, who was paddling around a small platform in Biscayne Bay just east of Mowry Canal, saw a 9-foot-long python curled up on a platform. Soon after, South Florida Water Management District technicians located the snake and quickly removed it. The python has been relocated and will serve as a training snake to for classes to teach the public about the Burmese python invasion and how to safely capture and remove these nasty invaders. Biscayne National Park officials ask for everyone to please keep their eyes...

Pythons swallow their prey whole, and take several days or even weeks to fully digest it.Biting off more than it could chew cost a 20-foot python its life in Junagadh district. The python died yesterday after swallowing a blue bull (‘nilgai’) at Baliavad village near Gir wildlife sanctuary, a Gujarat forest department official said. Villagers found the python lying on the road, its belly distended beyond normal capacity, and apparently struggling to digest the animal it had swallowed. “Forest officials were informed and they rushed to the site to ascertain its condition,” Deputy Conservator of Forest R Senthilkumaran said today....

Burmese python invasive to Everglades. The Burmese python, one of the largest snakes in the world, is running amok in Florida. Well, more like slithering amok. So much so that on Saturday, state officials kick off a month-long competition designed to remove as many of the colossal constrictors from the Everglades as possible. More than 600 people have signed up for the Python Challenge, according to Carli Segelson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which organized the event. A cash prize goes to the hunter who captures -- dead or alive -- the most Burmese pythons,...

Two huge Burmese pythons were caught and killed recently, one by a homeowner in Missouri’s rural Warren County, and the other by a researcher in Florida’s Shark Valley. Burmese pythons are considered to be a highly invasive species across the American Southeast, especially in Everglades National Park, where the slithery creatures have started to colonize. Experts say the snakes threaten native wildlife species like ground-nesting birds, but it seems that the reptiles also have an appetite for domestic animals as well. For days, a massive 14-foot python had stalked a community near Jonesburg, until residents took matters into their own...

I'm writing on a story I heard about the spread of the Burmese python in Florida. This is also my first post on this site. Despite all our objections against the dangers of blind and excessive "green" regulations by the federal government, conservationism SHOULD NOT be seen as a strictly progressive movement. In the context of invasive species, these types of pests infest an area the size of Delaware every year in this country (according to the Audubon Society). Pythons roam the Everglades. Chinese privet chokes out vital understory species in the Southern uplands. Zebra mussels crust the surface of...

Florida wildlife officials, opening a new front in the war on invasive snakes, are recruiting the general public for "python patrols" that teach them how to identify and even capture some of the hissing, snapping reptiles. "We consider (Burmese pythons) established, which means the hope of removing them is pretty slim," said Jenny Novak, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologist, during a recent training session with 20 volunteers in south Florida. "We're in management mode now." ... Florida is a hub for the exotic pet trade and a hot bed of invasive species that have snuck into...

MIAMI -- More than 1,500 participants of a monthlong python challenge have helped to capture 50 Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission updated the counts Tuesday for the "Python Challenge." The competition began Jan. 12 and ends Feb. 10.The invasive snakes killed in the Everglades are processed and logged by University of Florida researchers who examine each one hoping to learn more about the elusive species. No one knows for sure how many pythons live in South Florida. Wildlife officials say eradicating pythons from the Everglades was never the goal of the challenge. Instead,...

The chance to traipse through Florida's Everglades in search of wild pythons up to 15 feet long has attracted nearly 700 thrill-seekers from throughout the county. The Sunshine State is offering cash prizes in the month-long “Python Challenge,” which begins tomorrow and is aimed at helping to control the exploding population of the non-native Burmese pythons, which have devastated Florida's eco-system. Anyone is eligible for the hunt ... cash prizes of up to $1,500 will be given to hunters who catch the largest and most pythons. The pythons that have nearly eradicated entire native species such as deer, bobcats and...

Participants must take an online training course, with additional training available at the Jan. 12 event. The python must be killed in a humane manner, using a firearm or other methods outlined in the training materials. The dead pythons must be brought within 24 hours to one of three drop-off locations in Davie, Miami and Naples. For a complete list of rules, go to http://www.pythonchallenge.org. Hunters can compete for cash prizes for catching the most Burmese pythons… Think you can catch a $1,000 snake? The state wildlife commission is enlisting the profit motive in the fight against the Burmese pythons...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The biggest Burmese python ever caught in Florida — 17 feet, 7 inches long and 164½ pounds — was found in Everglades National Park, the University of Florida announced Monday. The snake was pregnant with 87 eggs, also said to be a record. Scientists said the python's stats show just how pervasive the invasive snakes, which are native to Southeast Asia, have become in South Florida. "It means these snakes are surviving a long time in the wild," said Kenneth Krysko, a snake expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where the euthanized snake...

As you may have heard, invasive Burmese pythons have nearly wiped out populations of white tail deer, raccoons and other mammals in the Florida everglades. Now I am not an absolutist when it comes invasive species. I like wild horses and tumbleweeds, for instance. But I am biased against giant frick’n snakes that can eat small children and large dogs illegally sneaking into our country. That’s just me. (Oh and my one word response to the objection that there are no reports of feral Burmese pythons eating children: “Yet.”).

Burmese pythons have virtually wiped out raccoons, marsh rabbits, opossums and other once-common mammals in the southern region of Everglades National Park, according to a nine-year study that shows the snakes' devastating impact on the park's wildlife. The loss of so many significant species from part of the park is certain to have significant repercussions throughout the food web, said Michael Dorcas, lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Enlarge Image Heart attack. Following a big meal, oily nutrients in the bloodstream of Burmese pythons (shown) spur massive growth of their hearts. Credit: Stephen M. Secor At the end of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the titular villain undergoes a literal change of heart. His blood-pumping organ swells to three times its prior size. The ticker of the Burmese python (Python molurus) similarly balloons, but the cause isn't Christmas cheer—it's a big meal. A new study of recently fed snakes suggests that a precise mixture of fatty acids in the blood drives this cardiac growth, unveiling...

Time to put those snake-stalking skills to work. State wildlife officials have created a special python hunting season to try to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout the Everglades and the hunting begins today. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says anyone with a hunting license who pays a $26 permit fee can kill the reptiles from today to April 17 on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida. The season is open for Burmese and Indian pythons, African rock pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards. Thousands of the nonnative Burmese pythons are believed to...

Watch out, animals of South Florida: It's a wild world out there. There are five species of foreign snakes just waiting to eat you. More troublingly, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released Tuesday, nonnative snakes like the Burmese python could slither their way north from the warm, humid conditions of South Florida. The big snakes threaten native species and ecosystems because they mature and reproduce quickly, travel long distances and can eat almost anything in fur, feathers or scales, experts say. The 302-page report could be a step toward a ban on importing constrictor-like snakes into the U.S.,...

It's been about two months since Florida issued a virtual open season on giant invasive Burmese pythons gobbling up rabbits, birds and even small alligators throughout the Everglades. Now there's another nonnative stealthy stalker that could soon be taking up residence in the region — Africa's largest snake, the rock python. Three of these enormous constrictors that can grow to 20 feet and weigh 200 pounds have been found in the last few months in western Miami-Dade County, raising concerns that they could establish a breeding population, just like their Burmese cousins.

Researchers have warned that two non-native species of python currently slithering free in south Florida could morph into a giant man-eating swamp coil. The capture of five African rock pythons near an Everglades already teeming with the gentler Burmese pythons has experts worried about “hybrid vigor” – a phenomenon that occurs when interbreeding uncorks volatile recessive genes, passing traits such as aggression onto the offspring, the Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday. The two species have interbred in captivity. While Burmese pythons aren’t known to eat people in their native habitat, the African rock python, unfortunately, has been known to...

In an case of real life imitating Hollywood, the US scientific community is increasingly concerned that two nonnative python breeds currently slithering free in south Florida could morph into a giant man-eating swamp coil. The capture of five African rock pythons recently near an Everglades already teeming with the gentler Burmese pythons has scientists worried about so-called "hybrid vigor" – a phenomenon that occurs when interbreeding uncorks volatile recessive genes, passing traits such as aggression onto the offspring. Think Africanized bees. The two species have interbred in captivity. While Burmese pythons aren't known to eat people in their native habitat,...

A Southern California family , who lives near Lake Elsinore... The first animal control officer who saw the size of the critter had to call for backup. Two officers then wrangled the 50-pound snake into a truck and took it to a shelter. the Burmese python's presumed owner, a long-distance trucker, contacted the agency. Welsh says the owner entrusted his pet to his brother while he was away and the snake somehow escaped.

A Burmese python, that measured more than 17-feet, was captured and destroyed in Okeechobee County on Thursday. The male snake weighed 207 pounds and measured 26 inches in diameter. The reptile did not have a microchip, which is required for it to be a pet. "The capture of this large python shows us how well these snakes can thrive in the wild and create a dangerous situation after illegal release or escape," said commission chairman Rodney Barreto. "It also illustrates why the FWC is partnering with other agencies to implement python control measures in South Florida. We will continue to...