Python Hunt in Florida

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www.pythonchallenge.org

They started on Saturday the 12th. And the first week's total is...

"21 harvested Burmese pythons were received by the University of Florida as of Friday, January 18. The pythons are being processed and logged by UF for the 2013 Python Challenge™. Additional updates on the number of snakes harvested will be posted here on a regular basis on Tuesdays and Fridays."
 
Never under-estimate mans ability to hunt a species to near extinction. All man needs is a little motivation. Example: Bison and their hides.

I firmly believe if there were a price on every python brought it, we could successfully hunt them out of the Everglades and south Florida. What we need is a savvy sales-person to create a market for their hides, heads, jaws, meat, etc. and then we'll see REAL snake eradication take place.

Is there a market in Asia for them for meat or medicinal purposes?
Any Chinese buyers for herbal/holistic purposes?
 
The problem with these snakes is they have no predators. They eat gators along with anything else they can find. I too think a high enough bounty would help. Only time will tell. Maybe someone will come up with a way to attract them. I have heard that they have decimated the everglades.
 
I'm telling you, create a market for python purses, wallets, boots, belts...etc. There is the bounty!! Cletus and Billy Bob then sell their dead pythons to some wanna-be french Yo Yo fashionista at some swanky boutique in South Beach.

Problem solved...
 
A few additional items about the "hunt".... Everglades National Park is off limits for the "hunt". Since it's just about python central that means any snakes taken during this political event are only a fraction of what's out there. You know it's a political deal when one of two senators in our state gets a photo op as he joined the "hunt"....

As some have suggested a year 'round bounty system with no areas off limits (particularly the Park, since it stretches from Key Largo all the way west to Everglades City...) is the best way to go. Since these animals have pretty much eaten all the small mammals in the area of the Park they infest (east and west of the only road in the Park from the front date down to Flamingo). They're now spreading out of the Park. I know that Park officials are probably dead set against any active hunt for them on Park grounds, but until they do something all of the rabbits, possums, racoons, and anything else that comes into contact with one of these snakes will come out on the short end of things....

If they did institute a bounty system I'd advise anyone interested to wait until the last two months of the dry season (we only get two seasons down here - a wet and a dry) and target the coldest days possible when there's also really great sunshine... Like every other reptile they'll be laying out anywhere they can sunbathe (and they're not able to move too fast, particularly early before they warm up properly...).
 
Many factors in play in this mess. To begin with, the management of the parklands can't admit that they don't know how to deal with the problem. Obviously they don't know how, or they'd have been doing something years ago when the problem first surfaced.

Next is the notion that "civilians" don't know how to do anything. "Civilians" means anybody not a government employee.

I may be wrong, but I see no solution other than some sort of bounty system and unlimited killing by any possible means, anywhere by anybody, anywhen.
 
The pythons don't just eat coons and rabbits. They also eat, or try to, gators, hogs and deer.
If I remember right, this deer weighed 75 lbs.

DeerswallowedbyPython_zps8ab7d5db.png
 
I'm one of those "live bait fishermen" (but we also do it every other way possible including using lures and even flies....) and sharks are daily fare for my anglers when I'm guiding. Funny thing, years ago when I first worked as a mate on charterboats (early seventies before I went into police work) we killed every shark we encountered since they were headed for the taxidermist. These days every shark is very carefully released in good condition (guys who fish the beaches haven't gotten that message from what I've seen). Most folks on the water these days are very conservation minded.

That's why I'm so hot to see the pythons gone -they're doing terrible damage to the Everglades. If we don't do something now you'll be hearing about wild pythons up in central Florida in a few years... they just don't have any natural enemies and small and not so small animals have no defense against their slow hungry progress.
 
Mostly ladyfish where I am. We use them live, dead, in little pieces and chunks bigger than your fist. Everything in the backcountry eats them (and unlike someone's pet... the ladyfish are so abundant that we catch however many we need each day and never keep them overnight). In most places along the coast between Cape Sable and Lostman's River we're a bit disappointed if a chunk isn't picked up in less than five minutes - it's that kind of place.... I'll quit here -next thing I'll be posting pictures and a brochure.
 
running some numbers here...

$3900 for a purse..... I figure the average python can produce 2 or three of those at a minimum - probably a lot more, but let's say 3. that's almost $12,000 at retail. let's say it costs 1/4 of that in man hours and overhead to skin, tan, and stitch (that seems very conservative). that's $3,000 to handle a full python from start to finish. So hunters could be looking at sizeable amounts of cash and retailers could still make a killing.

$1000 per python doesn't seem unreasonable.

Even better, the state just has to give the OK for a market. Then the market takes over from there. No state funds needed.
 
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