Posted on 12/06/2012 1:10:36 PM PST by dennisw
Participants must take an online training course, with additional training available at the Jan. 12 event. The python must be killed in a humane manner, using a firearm or other methods outlined in the training materials. The dead pythons must be brought within 24 hours to one of three drop-off locations in Davie, Miami and Naples. For a complete list of rules, go to http://www.pythonchallenge.org.
Hunters can compete for cash prizes for catching the most Burmese pythons…
Think you can catch a $1,000 snake? The state wildlife commission is enlisting the profit motive in the fight against the Burmese pythons that have colonized the Everglades.
The 2013 Python Challenge will be held next month on South Florida's public hunting lands, with the public invited to compete for cash prizes. Winners will receive $1,000 for catching the longest snake and $1,500 for catching the most.
The event will begin Jan. 12 at the University of Florida's Davie campus with a daylong open house on pythons and other invasive species.
From there, it will be off to the wilderness, with competitors allowed to catch snakes in any of four state wildlife management areas: Francis S. Taylor, Holey Land, Rotenberger and Big Cypress. The prizes will be awarded in separate contests for the general public and for state-licensed python hunters.
A hunting license is not required, except for participants under 18.
"The [Florida Wildife Commission] is encouraging the public to get involved in helping us remove Burmese pythons from public lands in south Florida," said Kristen Sommers, head of the commission's Exotic Species Coordination Section. "By enlisting both the public and Florida's python permit holders in a monthlong competitive harvesting of Burmese pythons, we hope to motivate more people to find and harvest these large, invasive snakes."
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.sun-sentinel.com ...
How about machetes?
Are they tasty? Hunt them for food.
If they were serious, they’d offer a bounty per head. I’m not going to go hunt snakes on the chance I might win some money, but if you gave me, say, fifty bucks a snake guaranteed, then I’m listening.
They want the things killed they should stop worrying about how it’s done. Blowing their head off with a shotgun would be my preferred method.
Now, how about the same reward for bagging (albeit humanely) the immigrants who have intentionally introduced them...
Maybe MD can do the same for the snakehead...
There are also contests for hunting down another invasive species: Lionfish. A fringe benefit of spearing them is they taste great. Better than grouper. However, you have to be careful of their poisonous spines. Best to cut them off with scissors right after spearing them.
Could the Burmese python cross breed with the African Rock python? If so, what type of snake would that create? I have heard it is quite possible in Florida where these two types of snakes have been released into the wild.
Isn’t this incredibly dangerous??
These things are huge!!
Exactly. They are going to attract rooty toots not serious hunters and end up spending loads of money on search and rescue ops. A reasonable bounty makes more sense. Or just an open season that allows the sale of the hides on the open market.
It only infects pythons and constrictors.
Well, it shouldn’t be too dangerous if you are smart about it. After all, no matter how big they are, they can’t hurt you if you shoot them from a distance.
That would make a BurRock python, that serpent of old, known by its worshipers as a BurRock Obama...
If I catch any it will be with .22LR hollowpoints.
You’re quick. Nice word play. :-)
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