Posted on 07/15/2022 1:00:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
Under the cover of darkness, two wildlife officials raided an invasive python's nest in a South Florida swamp and successfully wrestled 19 wriggling hatchlings and their mother into a bag and out of the protected habitat. The next day, one of the officials captured a second breeding female — measuring an astounding 17.5 feet (5.3 meters) long — from the exact same spot.
Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) were first introduced to Florida in the 1970s and have since established large breeding populations in southern regions of the state. The humongous snakes usually grow to be about 6 to 9 feet (1.8 to 2.7 m) long, although recently, officials captured a nearly 18 foot (5.4 m) long python near Naples that weighed 215 pounds (97 kilograms), Live Science previously reported. With few natural predators in Florida, the invasive snakes pose a threat to many native birds, mammals and even alligators, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission(opens in new tab) (FWC).
For this reason, the FWC and other organizations use a number of strategies to find, capture and remove pythons from South Florida ecosystems; this includes hiring contractors to survey snake-infested swampland and capture any pythons they find.
Alex McDuffie is one such contractor, hired by the South Florida Water Management District. Just before midnight on Monday (July 11), McDuffie spotted a newly-hatched Burmese python youngster in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a 729,000-acre (2,950 square km) freshwater swamp ecosystem located in Ochopee, Florida, north of Everglades National Park. While tracking the snake, he ran into FWC Officer Matthew Rubenstein, who was patrolling the park and promptly joined the snake hunt, according to a statement(opens in new tab) from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Two wildlife officials, one in a parks uniform and one in a neon vest, pose with a clutch of invasive python eggs with young hatchlings in their hands; a second photo shows one official holding an adult python Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Matthew Rubenstein (right) holds the neck of a female Burmese python. He and python removal contractor Alex McDuffie (center) found the python on her nest in a preserve in South Florida. (Image credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife)
Florida Ping!.....................
They make nice belts and handbags.
Drop them off at the Pelosi House of Snakes in San Francisco.
I thought her House of Snakes was in D.C.?
I was thinking about a middle-of-the-night flight to Delaware.
“Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) were first introduced to Florida in the 1970s”
By accident? i.e. someone brought a baby Burmese python here as a pet and when it got really big dumped it in the Everglades? Or did they get here like:”The Asian tiger mosquito entered the United States in shipments of used tires from northern Asia in the mid-1980s.”?
A friend of mine lost one in the ‘80s.
So is it illegal to douse the eggs in diesel fuel and light ‘em on fire ?
Were they being bred on purpose, or did they just happen to be there? Creeeeepy.
Probably another GENIUS idea Uncle Sugar had by introducing kudzu and alligators into our area. 🙄
You put a $50 bounty on a python of any size over 30 inches and the everglades over several years would be cleaned out.
They will taste better soft boiled.
I saw one out in a swampy/wooded area of south Dade County in 1977.
The Python Cowboy channel on youtube is fun to watch. The guy has a dog that sniffs out Python nests.
https://www.youtube.com/c/PythonCowboy
Are they edible?
Python Hunt- August 5-14, 2022
https://flgov.com/2022/06/16/governor-ron-desantis-announces-2022-florida-python-challenge/
nope, too many crooks and thieves, you'd have people breeding them in their homes and turning them in for the bounty, or finding nests and keeping them until they hit 30".
Wayyyy too easy the steal public funds with little chance of getting caught. 1st law to pass is, make them illegal to own in any form.
Now, change my mind
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