i didn't know FL had a big python problem. or that people hunted python. what does python taste like? everglades residents and snake lovers pls discuss.

Quote :

"Local Hunter Bags 10-Foot Python Palm Bay Man Captures Snake On Day 1 Of New Program POSTED: Friday, July 17, 2009 UPDATED: 4:16 pm EDT July 17, 2009 ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida hunter captured a nearly 10-foot Burmese python on Friday, the first day of a new program designed to decrease the snake population in the Sunshine State. Shawn Heflick, of Palm Bay, caught the 9-foot, 8-inch python in South Florida, where an estimated 150,000 pythons live in the wild. "Honestly, I was surprised. I did not expect to see a Burmese python today," Heflick said. "We hope our success today helps us establish connections with airboat operators and sportsmen out here in the (Everglades). They can tell us where these snakes are, so we can go out and find them." Armed with snake hooks and nets, a group of reptile experts selected by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission participated in the first day of the hunt. The volunteer permit holders spotted the python in the water underneath a boardwalk leading to a camp on a tree island. The snake was later euthanized. The new program allows permit holders to search for pythons on several FWC wildlife management areas and lands managed by the South Florida Water Management District. "Today's success in the field points to the professionalism and experience of our permit holders," said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. "We thank Gov. Charlie Crist for supporting this program. Today's outcome shows that we do have a serious Burmese python problem, and this program is a good first step in helping to stop the spread of this exotic species." Permit holders must already have a Reptile of Concern permit. When permit holders capture and euthanize a python, they must report its GPS location and take a digital photo of the carcass. Permit holders are allowed to sell the snake’s hide and meat. The python permit program runs from July 17 to Oct. 31, at which time the FWC will evaluate the data collected and determine if it should extend or expand the program. The program was implemented shortly after a 2-year-old Central Florida girl was strangled by a python in her home. The snake was a pet of her mother's boyfriend and escaped its cage in the middle of the night. Sen. Bill Nelson has also called for action to be taken to stop the spread of pythons in South Florida, saying it won't be long until someone is injured by one of the snakes."

7/17/2009 7:15:49 PM

keeping pets that wouldn't hesitate to kill you is ALWAYS a good idea.

7/17/2009 7:17:15 PM

what a let down.

7/17/2009 7:19:17 PM

got a pants python 4 u

7/17/2009 7:20:09 PM

well now he is DEAD. so he is probably really let down too.

7/17/2009 7:20:24 PM

POST

WHAT'S GOING ON ITT????

7/17/2009 7:23:35 PM

all i'm saying is that i'm confused on how hunting pythons in an FWC wildlife area will help prevent people from being strangled by their pets!

it just seems mean.

7/17/2009 7:26:46 PM

hunting pythons seems mean

but some documentary I saw said they weren't even supposed to be there in the first place

so they could eat little babies

BABY CHILDREN KHCADWAL

LITTLE FUCKING BABIES

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEN WHAT????

THOSE BABIES WERE IMPORTANT TO THE FUTURE OF OUR SOCIETY AS A WHOLE!!!11

7/17/2009 7:28:07 PM

well yea i guess because they are burmese pythons so they didn't originate there but that is what happens when someone gets a pet and then they're like "shit this thing is scary" and they just let it out the back door.

ok fine i found a wikipedia reference to help me out. no thanks to TWW

Quote :

"The captive breeding of Burmese pythons in the Americas has led to some rather serious problems. People who grow tired of their pythons, or whose pythons have grown too large to be kept in their houses, have been known to release their pets into the wild rather than have them euthanised. This has been particularly problematic in Florida, where a large number of pythons have made their way to the Florida Everglades.[2] They have thrived there, begun to reproduce prolifically, and become an invasive species. Over 230 (National Geographic - October 28, 2005) have been captured in the Everglades where they are competing with alligators as the dominant predator. In recent years this competition has resulted in what officials describe as a draw.[3][4][5] Since they have been known to eat endangered birds and alligators, these snakes present a new danger to an already fragile ecosystem. In February 2008, one scientist predicted that, after several generations, these snakes could eventually migrate to and flourish in as much as a third of the continental United States.[5]"

i guess they eat endangered species or something and the news article was just poorly written because some girl got eaten by her mom's bfs python who did NOT crawl out of a wildlife refuge in the everglades to eat her.

[Edited on July 17, 2009 at 7:31 PM. Reason : .]

7/17/2009 7:30:56 PM

i heard snakes taste like chicken

also heard that people taste like chicken

also heard tales of people smelling burning human flesh and their stomach rumbled like they were hungry for it

7/17/2009 7:32:22 PM

8 of my last 9 threads have been in all caps

true story

take that one to the bank

7/17/2009 7:33:37 PM

i just feel like this python has suffered a great injustice

he didn't kill anyone!!! but someone still killed him just because he was a python!

7/17/2009 7:34:28 PM

python owners where you at!!!

7/17/2009 8:09:15 PM

i heart our 2 balls.....pythons that is

7/17/2009 8:14:05 PM

^^ That second one just swallowed a punching bag apparently

[Edited on July 17, 2009 at 8:15 PM. Reason : ^^]

7/17/2009 8:15:31 PM

wtf?



[Edited on July 17, 2009 at 8:18 PM. Reason : oh the url of the img explains it.]

7/17/2009 8:18:13 PM

Quote :

"they are competing with alligators as the dominant predator. In recent years this competition has resulted in what officials describe as a draw"

who would have thought that a fight ending in a draw could be so epic?

7/17/2009 8:20:24 PM

That's effing nuts. I want to see a gator fight a python. I can probably do it in my backyard. Boo Florida.

7/17/2009 8:23:57 PM

I'm going to open up Pythonland to compete with Gatorland in Florida. Except instead of displaying gators, it's just going to be another stereotypical gay strip club in south beach.

7/17/2009 8:26:50 PM

lol

7/17/2009 8:29:22 PM

Ahahahaha! Best idea ever. I am stealing you biz idea. I know some men who would be interested in work.

And Clamland would be the neighboring lesbo bar.

7/17/2009 8:30:56 PM

all of these invasive species screw everything up. we need to kill all of the wild kittens while we are at it!

7/17/2009 9:36:16 PM

wild kittens dont kill 10 foot alligators

7/17/2009 9:42:59 PM

Well, I've "hunted" snakes in south Florida, and I don't know how they really expect this to do anything for their invasive python problem. Crotalus, Firebreather, adder, Nshepard and I go down there pretty regularly and have caught quite a few. The largest was somewhere around 12ft 3in, and we found it right after it had been hit by a dualie towing a decent sized boat. That fucker barely had a trickle of blood in its mouth, and we know it survived the hit(s), because it was turned over to one of the people who does research on them in the Everglades, and they implanted a transmitter and track(ed) it. When we go down to the Everglades during the summer, we find an average of about 2 Burmese pythons a night.

The problem with the Everglades python population is that there is no good way they can get rid of it. There is too wide of an expanse that is not easily accessible to humans to control them. There are not only Burmese pythons established in south Florida, ball pythons, red tail boas, and anacondas occasionally show up, too (not to mention there are very many invasive species of flora and fauna established in Florida).

All I can really say is that the only place they can control the spread of pythons is outside of the Everglades, where man has a hold of the land. The thousands of acres that make up the Everglades are going to remain home to the pythons, no matter how many taxpayer dollars they throw at it.

So I leave you with a picture of the 12'3" python we caught.


and another big'n I caught with Crotalus and Nshepard.



and a whole mess of other smaller ones.


And for the record...I want the invasive pythons gone, but I'm scared about telling the public to go out and kill the ones they find. Snakes have it bad enough as it is, and I feel with all the hysteria regarding these pythons, native species may get targeted more than usual because joe dumbass "python hunter" probably can't tell different species apart.

[Edited on July 17, 2009 at 9:50 PM. Reason : .]

7/17/2009 9:44:04 PM

yes! you! you are who i wanted to hear from (though i know there are other snake lovers, i feel like there is a snake lover thread i couldn't find)

but how does hunting pythons in the everglades help? isn't that protected wildlife. i mean i get that they are eating endangered species, so i guess that is a problem.

but how is it helping the human population that is scared of getting attacked by pythons?? or is it?

this is serious, i really want to know.

7/17/2009 10:48:36 PM

pyhon, monty

7/17/2009 10:55:20 PM

From what I've gathered though these pythons aren't a native species. It's the amalgam of people who keep them as pets and then get tired of them or decide they are too big so they figure a nice swampy canal will be a suitable home. The bad part is that it is too good of a home. I am probably the biggest proponent here for the sanctity of non-human life and even I agree that if these pythons are an invasive species brought on by humans than they should be hunted/removed before they cause severe ecological imbalance. Hell, when the Florida alligator has trouble keeping something in check then you know you have a problem.

7/17/2009 10:57:00 PM

7/17/2009 11:17:09 PM

First of all, alligators aren't there to keep anything in check.

The only thing that hunting pythons helps is to keep the fearful people happy. They hear another python was killed, they feel happy. On the other hand, they find out that a python shows up close to their neighborhood and the hysteria perpetuates. Yes, wildlife in the Everglades National Park is protected. But that's where the core of the problem is located. There is a huge uninhabited expanse where the pythons reside. Unlike us, they don't need cars or boats to get where they need to go.

Of course, when I refer to the snake "hunting" that I do, 99.9% of the time, it doesn't involve me killing the snake. The only snakes I have purposely killed in the past few years were Burmese pythons. The biggest ones get sent to researchers in the Everglades. Snake hunting, to me, means going out and catching snakes for fun, sometimes photographing them, and always releasing them.

As I mentioned, there are native species that can be confused with pythons if you don't know shit about snake ID. Eastern Diamondbacks exist throughout Florida and get pretty large (though nowhere near as large as burms). They have a pattern, and burms have a pattern, which could lead to misidentification. It happens with other snakes all the time (see: water snakes always misidentified as copperheads or cottonmouths). Eastern indigo snakes are very large snakes as well, and federally endangered. Also found in the Everglades (very rarely). There could be people who get into the python hunting thing for the sake they just want to kill snakes, and I feel that's the wrong reason. I think there should be strict regulations on who is/is not permitted to trap/kill snakes. It should be left to specialists, not John Q. Public.

In my opinion, Florida is repeatedly failing at control of invasive species. Just because these snakes are large doesn't mean they'll be easy to control. Cuban treefrogs have taken over Florida and nearly butted out native treefrog species. The brown anole has displaced the green anole just about everywhere it is established. They're nowhere near the size of burms, but they've caused a lot of damage to native wildlife. Pure and simple, the issue at play with the Burmese pythons is the fact that they could be a threat to human life. But I'd be willing to bet that in the next ten years, if any human deaths result from these pythons, it won't be more than 1 (not including this escaped captive shit).

It's to late for me to keep going on with this...

7/17/2009 11:45:02 PM

right. so there are a lot of "invasive species"??? ie: not just the burmese python? (though they look really scary in pictures!!!)!

but aren't burmese pythons considered protected species/endangered species in other parts of the world??

again, serious question. probably only umop-apisdn can answer.

7/18/2009 2:49:29 AM

Maybe in Burma, no idea.

But there's no reason for them to be protected here. If I get a pack of dingos and release them in NC, should they then be protected because there aren't many of them?

Hell no, they don't belong here anyway!

7/18/2009 3:56:15 AM

You can come hunt my python

7/18/2009 4:27:50 AM

7/18/2009 4:29:27 AM

what about that king cobra that got loose in fayetteville a while back

7/18/2009 4:49:54 AM

glad to see yall took Mclovin along with you

7/18/2009 9:25:18 AM

^^I do believe that that "king cobra" was never confirmed, and was actually probably something like a large coachwhip...kinda like this, a big one but not the biggest I've caught:


Yes, there are many many many invasive species in Florida. Check out the number of introduced lizards in Florida: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/FL-GUIDE/Flaherps.htm

What we refer to as "Burma" is now considered Myanmar. They used to suffer a lot of pressures in their native home (which extends beyond Myanmar, actually covering much of southern Asia), but now not so much. Captive breeding takes a lot of the pressure of the native wild population, but thenagain that's what brought them here. They have been hunted for various reasons, and the Burmese pythons that remain in their native land are currently listed as CITES appendix II (which essentially limits the export of those animals from their native range, so there is a quota although I have no idea what the cap on export is).

7/18/2009 9:41:03 AM

This issue has become a very political one. First of all, the idea of the Everglades Burmese pythons being a result of discarded pets is NOT supported by any evidence. It has become the excepted idea because the political organizations campaigning against animal ownership in general (API, PETA etc.) have flooded public perception with poorly written articles like the original one. The fact of the matter is the genetic work done on the everglades population points to the introduction all happening at once and a more likely occurrence is an escape incident from an importer or a zoo during a hurricane. This evidence is ignored because the animal rights organizations see reptile ownership as an easy place to start because of the ignorant publics irrational fear of snakes.
Next issue:
The rash of "cobra" sightings in NC (there were 3) happened right around the time when a bill was being pushed through by API to ban ownership of a bunch of reptiles (including venomous snakes). The first instance was a redneck driving a lawnmower and seeing a possible snake "stand up" no reliable evidence at all of a cobra. The second one happened a couple days later and consisted of flyers claiming 2 lost albino monocle cobras the law enforcement mentioned API involvement on this one (API= Animal Protection Institute).

7/18/2009 10:00:38 AM

I think you meant "accepted".

But yea. Many exotic reptile/amphibian species established in Florida should be blamed on hurricanes and irresponsible animal DEALERS more than anything else.

But when it comes to the management of the problem, I'll always say what they're doing is too little, too late.

7/18/2009 10:32:52 AM

^^when I hear reports of cobra sightings in NC, I immediately assume that some idiot saw an eastern nognose flare their head at them and just assumed that it had to be a cobra.

7/18/2009 12:00:02 PM

^ Yeah, the hognose and the coachwhip both do that. I could easily see people confusing the two (or just not knowing the differences).

And I seriously heard someone on Nat Geo say 'poisinous snake' a few months ago.... I immediately changed the channel.

Poeple's problems with snakes, and many animals in general, is not being properly educated about the issues. Just like those idiots in Winston Salem freaking out over a black bear sighting and shooting a cub... its just been a matter of time till they get in central NC anyway! We have them to the east and to the west, did you really not think they would show up here with all the habitat destruction going on? They have to move somewhere, just like us humans do! When one subdivision fills up, what do we do? We build another one somewhere else.

[Edited on July 18, 2009 at 12:31 PM. Reason : ]

7/18/2009 12:27:55 PM

7/18/2009 12:29:45 PM

def snakes
print "I got a snake may-un"

7/18/2009 12:43:55 PM

paging Samwise16

7/18/2009 12:47:20 PM

hah, reticulated pythons are mean as shit! Gorgeous, though.

My brother had up to 30-35 snakes at one point, including a 14ft burmese python, Sampson.
I miss my snakes
He now has a BEAUTIFUL morph of garter snake:

I think umop-apisdn summed up pretty damn well what I was going to contribute about the invasive species part, and then some! Neat pics dude

[Edited on July 18, 2009 at 1:02 PM. Reason : .]

7/18/2009 1:01:40 PM

this thread made me lift my feet up off the floor

7/18/2009 3:05:14 PM

Quote :

"paging Samwise16"

I was about to type a bunch of stuff out but umop basically said everything I was going to.

I agree completely with the "too little, too late" statement as well..

7/18/2009 3:41:29 PM

Quote :

"They have been hunted for various reasons, and the Burmese pythons that remain in their native land are currently listed as CITES appendix II (which essentially limits the export of those animals from their native range, so there is a quota although I have no idea what the cap on export is)."

right ok this is what i read but i just wasn't sure. i'm not a snake expert, obviously haha.

thanks for the responses snake people they were all interesting. i mean, i'm not like "OMG the pythons don't kill animals" or anything - i get the whole non-native species/ecological imbalance thing. i just thought the article brought up interesting questions (for me) because it was so horribly written. it basically said 2 year old strangled by python --> python hunting. which i knew wasn't right, but i mean it didn't even discuss the native species issue or any ecological issues or anything.

but i get what you guys are saying about a "too little too late" type of response. especially taken together with comments like this:

Quote :

"The fact of the matter is the genetic work done on the everglades population points to the introduction all happening at once and a more likely occurrence is an escape incident from an importer or a zoo during a hurricane. This evidence is ignored because the animal rights organizations see reptile ownership as an easy place to start because of the ignorant publics irrational fear of snakes."

so the hunted snakes are often used for research? so they can tell (w/ genetics testing or whatever) that the snakes/snake population/whatever didn't just get out of control because of people letting their pets go free - because the introduction happened all at once? and if it was the result of an importer or something like that it just seems like maybe those laws/rules/regulations would be a good place to start in trying to fix the problem but i guess since the snakes are already there, its like...well...what else are you gonna do.

7/18/2009 8:49:30 PM

Its hard to control a population, plant or animal, that is alreadey way ahead of the game as far competing with indigenous species

and to be honest, it is difficult to manage period. its not a matter of sitting on your heels until its too late. If u see it, pretty much the population is already established, especially if the specimen is mature.


espcially in florida with its long growing season and its consistent climate

its unfortunate really, but you cant blame it all on pet trade, a lot of it is just natural migration also

7/18/2009 9:02:51 PM

Quote :

"and to be honest, it is difficult to manage period. its not a matter of sitting on your heels until its too late. If u see it, pretty much the population is already established, especially if the specimen is mature."

ohhh. yea. i didn't think about that until now. i see your point.

7/18/2009 9:10:13 PM

set em up

7/18/2009 9:51:41 PM