Question about pythons in Florida

They've done that already. Most of them are in the Everglades. Ever been to the Everglades? Enormous amount of land, marshy (much of it only accessible by airboat or canoe), thick vegetation taller than you, gators lurking everywhere, and pythons, like most snakes, are elusive and can hide damn near anywhere.

Did you see this yesterday?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/06/us/florida-18-foot-python/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Oh my gosh!!
I would simply die of a heart attack if I tripped over one of those things while hunting.

rc

Much like feral hogs, the boas and pythons are here to stay. Personally I love snakes. But I do recognize and respect their capabilities. Remember news stories are tailored to maximize shock factor. Snakes are not ferocious. Snakes are predators. Burmese and Reticulated pythons are apex predators. But they don't chase down prey. They don't savagely tear it limb from limb. Ferocious? Please.

This didn't happen in the last few years. It's been going on for a long time. It's just now going mainstream.

"They called in the agency's "PYTHON COORDINATOR"(?) who killed the snake with a shot to the head"
I'm sorry, but "python coordinator"!? That just cracks me up. I guess I'm a big game, feral hog, varmint, upland game, and waterfowl "coordinator".

I think the locals use a Colt Python to hunt them.

The majority of the python population is in Everglades National Park. As you know, National Parks don't allow any hunting.

As stated above, the terrain is incredibly difficult to navigate and the snakes are very adept at hiding. Imbeciles releasing pet pythons started the problem but politics is to blame for hindering the eradication effort. It will never succeed in eradication but could result in reduction and control if the governments involved would allow unregulated killing of the pythons.

unfortunately the National Park Service is run by former Hippies, so killing anything takes an act of Congress. I worked at a national park and remember the hassle it was to kill nuisance animals who would get into peoples trash, ice chests, and other food. It would take upwards of a month to track the animal down, trap it and dispose of it. There is NO WAY they would let the average person participate in a "controlled hunt.

Imbeciles releasing pets may be PART of the problem, but what really got this invasive species rolling was Hurricane Andrew, in 1992; it destroyed part of a warehouse operation that was breeding these snakes for owners, and once they got into the wild, they spread like crazy. Each fertile female will lay 60-80 eggs, and if the majority of the young survive past the first 2 years, there's essentially nothing to stop them; they are starting to wipe out domestic Florida species that have no way of avoiding this new hazard, and it won't be until some kids get taken as food that they're going to get serious about this pest.

I spend a lot of time around Okeechobee, Belle Glade, South Point and south down toward Lauderdale. You could turn every redneck in the Southeast loose with permission to kill every snake they see and they wouldn't get 5% of them. Just pull up a Google map of the area south of Lake Okeechobee and realize that much of this land is nearly impenetrable and is LOADED with alligators and I mean LOADED. It's nothing to count a couple of hundred just driving down a county road.

They don't wander around a lot looking for food as they tend to be ambush predators. They really aren't that much of a threat to people, though I'm sure they could be, but they are devastating much of the local fauna. I really don't see a valid way to control them. Our people handle them whenever they see them.

The only thing that will kill a significant chunk of them is a cold spell. Mother nature got a load of them in 2010 or so when the temperature dipped into the 30s.

wonder if there good eating. Looks like all backstrap