Posted on 10/28/2011 2:43:37 PM PDT by jazusamo
A huge Burmese python that had just consumed an adult deer was captured and killed in the Everglades Thursday, as South Florida continues to fight a snake infestation that arrived via the exotic pet industry.
Contractors for the South Florida Water Management District found the snake on a tree island in western Miami-Dade County, according to the district. It was killed with a shotgun blast.
The snake was 15.6 feet long, making it one of the largest ever found in the wild in South Florida, said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The snake had a massive bulge from a recently consumed 76-pound female deer, among the largest prey items ever found in one of these snakes, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
I'd say that's a pretty good bet. Lets hope they didn't indoctrinate so many that the pendulum won't start to swing back before too long.
They are also less likely to run into traffic like regular deer, and are not skittish
I see them on Tamiami tral sometimes on the side of the road eating leaves and grass. I stop roll down the window a get a few photos
and say “Hello Deer” ( cracks up the kids). The deer just look back at ke and keep eating.
Apparently they are not scared of snakes either
Looks to be a darned successful deer camp.
Upper peninsula of Michigan. The really big ones are down here in the far south of the state. (Corn fed)
I have heard that one way pythons etc are caught is by putting a pig in a cage in the wild. Python eats pig but bulge stops from getting out of cage (until fully digested)
Not sure if true but makes sense.
Pythons are in the Everglades after Hurricane Andrew (if I remember correctly) when it blew apart a hatchery, sending a couple hundred pythons into the swamp.
They have been fruitful and multiplied......bad news for Floridians.
the million dollar question is...are they breeding? If so, then the invasion has only just begun.
I’ve read that they’re breeding prolifically, Florida has a problem and they’d better start dealing with it.
if they’re breeding and there aint no predators(and I don’t see how there could be), then the big snakes are gonna take over the everglades real easy. Barring human intervention.
I’m originally from Fla. Keys deer are about 50-60 lbs and Everglades deer also small. Even here in GA the average weight is only about 100-120 Lbs. Now pigs are another deal altogether. We have some bodacious wild hogs in the South. LOL!!!
Lots of critters are adapted that way. Bigger bass in the south vs big pike in the north.
If I remember correctly, there's another internet story from a while back about a Burmese python eating an alligator in the Everglades. Apparently, the gator was a little too big, and it ended up killing the python.
The photos of this are something else -- if they're true. I'd have to check Snopes. Lol!
There was a story awhile back that a 7 foot alligator was found in a pond outside a northern Oregon town which isn't too far from us. Some reptile guy came out and captured it, it had to be a critter that someone released because it outgrew where ever they had it. It's still scary that people do that. LOL!
We'll catcha mess and find out
The yearly records are starting to roll in around here. Regular firearm season starts on the 15th.
http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/10/258-pound_12-point_and_a_235-p.html
Poor Monty...life isn't easy being a snake.
LOL!
It sure wasn't for this one, he ate so much he couldn't even slither into the bush to make his getaway.
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