Florida's python problem: Bring in the bounty hunters

[babylonsister]

State wants bounty hunters to control pythons in Everglades

Those pesky pythons breeding, eating and booming in the Everglades could become targets of bounty hunters, if a preliminary proposal is implemented.

BY CURTIS MORGAN


There could be a bounty on the head -- and frighteningly long body -- of the Burmese python, serpent scourge of the Everglades.

State wildlife managers on Thursday informally ran the bounty idea by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar before his tour of the Everglades. Salazar, who also was given the opportunity to examine a live 16-footer captured in Everglades National Park, agreed it was worth looking into.

''If we don't get on top of this, they're going to eradicate the indigenous species of the Everglades,'' said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ``They have no enemies once they get past six feet long.''

FEW DETAILS

For now, the plan is sketchy and no lock. Virtually all the details remain to be worked out -- from the value of a carcass to the rules of who could hunt and where. No guns or hunting are allowed, for instance, in Everglades National Park, epicenter of the python invasion.

Over the last decade, park biologists have documented pythons breeding, eating everything from birds to bobcats, and booming in population. The latest rough estimate: 150,000. Hundreds of the giant constrictors also have been captured well north of the park's Tamiami Trail boundary.

State wildlife managers had been discussing a bounty as an option for controlling the spread of the snakes. But Barreto said managers of federal lands, which include Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress National Preserve, had been cool to the idea. Barreto, who heads a Miami lobbying firm, said he'd be willing to put up $10,000 of his own to kick-start a program, even if it was confined initially to state lands.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/1070898.html

[Robb]

1. Savages!

...I'm sorry, are they eating the python meat? Using every part of the bodies?

I can't remember whether I'm supposed to be mad about this, or it it's OK because they aren't particularly cuddly. Or at least, not cuddly in a good way.

[MadHound]

2. The fact of the matter is that pythons are eating up the rest of the fauna in the Everglades

They are a non-native, invasive species, one that is big enough to take on and kill the largest animals in the Everglades.

It doesn't matter whether they're cute or cuddly or what have you. They don't belong in the Everglades, and frankly every last one that is now in the swamp needs to be killed, otherwise the swamp itself is doomed.

[Robb]

7. Clearly I needed a sarcasm tag

Amazing to think I did, really. Here ya go: :sarcasm: <----stick this up there

[jwirr]

8. It sounds to me like this python is an imported specie that is threatening

local species. It is a problem that needs to be addressed. We here around the Great Lakes are having problems with new species as well.

[lapfog_1]

3. Sadly, this is one case (of many like this)

where hunting down all of the invasive species is required.

Otherwise, very soon, the Everglades will change again and won't be the home of the animals you hoped to save.

[babylonsister]

6. Don't worry, be happy!

If I lived in FL, I do believe I'd want the pythons gone. :scared:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5702329

The latest, largest evidence emerged last week: A Burmese python stretching 16-1/2 feet, the longest yet of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the exotic constrictors the South Florida Water Management District has pulled off its lands and levees in the past few years.

More sobering: The female, found on the L-67 levee south of Tamiami Trail, was pregnant, carrying a clutch of 59 eggs - more proof the giant snakes are breeding in the wild.



A huge Burmese python in Florida may have died while eating an alligator. ... Photo: A python with an alligator protruding from its midsection ...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_05...

[JVS]

13. Was the alligator the cause of death or did it just happen to be in there when it died?

[babylonsister]

14. I don't know, but it looks like the alligator ripped the snake a new one, and it

was fatal. So indirectly, I'd say the alligator was the cause of death.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Allowing 16 footers to take over? No freakin' way, baby.

Uh-uh.

[fishnfla]

5. 150,000 burmese pythons. 50 Florida panthers

which one was here first? which one will be here last?

exotic pets are so cool, until their exotic owners get bored with them

[RebelOne]

17. I owned 2 exotic pets when I lived in South Florida,

2 boa constrictors. When they became over 7 feet long, I donated them to the Miami-Dade College Hands-On Nature Center. In fact, I was able to take their value off my income tax return.

[liberalmuse]

9. This is why you shouldn't have tropical pets.

Or bring plants to an area where they are not endemic. These former 'pets' got loose from captivity during Hurricane Andrew, and now we have this. I don't want to see any animal hunted, but this is a case where the indigenous life is threatened. There's a reason certain plants and animals grow in certain areas, and this is a fine example of how humans bringing in a species can destroy an ecosystem. Eventually, nature works it out, but in the short term, we screw ourselves and the other life forms we share our habitat with when we fuck with her.

[FarCenter]

10. Does it tast like chicken?

There should be some good southeast asian recipies?

[old mark]

18. ...like a 16 foot cold blooded constricting chicken....no drumsticks, though..nt

[L0oniX]

11. Wait until the press catches one eating a kitty and then all hell will break loose.

[babylonsister]

12. Done. Python Apparently Swallows Family's 15-Pound Cat

And this is from 2005!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4140122

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Elidia Rodriguez, of Miami Gardens, had been looking for her 1-year-old Siamese cat for two days when her son pointed out the bulging Burmese python slithering in her back yard.

Experts said that bulge in the 12-foot snake is probably the missing 15-pound cat. Rodriguez got the cat last year as a post-hurricane gift. She named the cat Frances, after the storm.

The snake was spotted in Rodriguez's back yard Sunday.

Experts with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit said Frances wouldn't have stood a chance against the larger predator.

[rucky]

15. I thought we could bring guns into national parks, now?

Isn't that our credit-card reform action?

[DailyGrind51]

16. I stopped collecting exotic reptiles 40 years ago.

However, I would gladly "adopt" homeless Burmese rather than have it hunted down and killed just because it, through no fault of its own, is in the wrong place.

[votingupstart]

19. a bounty i wont be collecting

sorry - i am not going into a swamp (armed with a gun or not) and trying to hunt something that can kill and eat an alligator - i will sit at the bar and watch the A&E special of someone else doing it.

[cherokeeprogressive]

20. Let's watch while Jim wrestles the angry 16 foot long Burmese Python in waist deep water...

and if YOU ever get caught in a bad situation, call Mutual of Omaha...