Posted on 10/26/2022 1:26:37 PM PDT by Red Badger
VIDEOS AT LINK.............
A 19-year-old South Florida man captured 28 Burmese pythons during a 10-day competition that was created to increase awareness about the threats the invasive snakes pose to the state's ecology.
Matthew Concepcion was among the 1,000 participants from 32 states, Canada and Latvia who participated in the annual challenge, which removed 231 of the unwanted pythons, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a news release.
For his efforts, Concepcion was awarded the $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize courtesy of the Bergeron Everglades Foundation. Dustin Crum won a $1,500 grand prize for removing the longest python, at just over 11 feet.
Earlier this year, a team of biologists hauled in the heaviest Burmese python ever captured in Florida. That female python weighed 215 pounds, was nearly 18 feet long and had 122 developing eggs, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Burmese pythons aren't protected except by Florida's anti-cruelty law, so participants had to document that each one was killed humanely.
Concepcion told the South Florida SunSentinel he's been hunting pythons for about five years, and typically looks for them at night because that's when they're on the move, seeking the warmth of roads. He uses his vehicle lights to spot them.
This year, however, he only spotted one on the roads in the Everglades, so he changed strategies.
"I worked a levee, caught a couple hatchings, and was like, 'Dang, this might be the ticket!' So every single night from then on, I went out there — just before sundown to sunup."
Concepcion says he walked the canal, using a flashlight to probe the underbrush. Smaller snakes are so well camouflaged that he looks for their shadows cast by the flashlight beam, he told the newspaper. But larger snakes are easier to find.
"They will have a slightly purple tint to them. They're really beautiful."
Concepcion said he may use some of his earnings to buy a powerful lighting setup for his truck, which will help him spot more snakes.
"Our python hunters are passionate about what they do and care very much about Florida's precious environment. We are removing record numbers of pythons and we're going to keep at it," South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Member "Alligator Ron" Bergeron said in a news release.
Captive Burmese pythons let loose by Hurricane Andrew's destruction in 1992 have flourished in the southern Florida ecosystem, decimating local species in the process.
Today the Everglades are overrun with the giant snakes and it's had devastating consequences. A 2012 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that after Andrew exacerbated the Burmese python invasion of the Florida Everglades, populations of raccoons and opossums dropped roughly 99 percent and some species of rabbits and foxes effectively disappeared.
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"It was very humane. I gave it an overdose of reds." - Fat Freddy Freak on how he killed the Thanksgiving Turkey.
Belize has been doing something like this with the invasive Lionfish:
https://www.belizelionfish.org/cooking.html
Indiana Jones sez “I still hate snakes !!!”
There is a reason why the Creator put the harder p*cker on a younger man.
Now do kudzu.
$1,000 per day...pretty good pay for a 19 year old. You have to admire his tenacity and gumption to accomplish what he did.
how many did he catch and stash beforehand?
“participants had to document that each one was killed humanely.”
LOL...now how do you do that? Take a video of how you dispatched each one? Is dropping them into a tree chipper humane?
These contest operators probably would get upset if they knew how I dispatched 77 squirrels devouring my orchard fruit.
yeah, people suck sometimes...
You have to put a time limit that is just shorter than the gestational period.
They do something similar to this with the Lion Fish in the Caribbean.
“Captive Burmese pythons let loose by Hurricane Andrew’s destruction in 1992 have flourished in the southern Florida ecosystem”
This statement sounds like BS.
Try that schtick with timber rattlers or cotton mouths.
Unfortunately, it is true. Thousands of homes were wrecked by Hurricane Andrew, including many with pythons as pets that escaped into the wild. In addition, some python breeding facilities for the pet trade were wrecked, leading to even more being getting into the wild.
What or who will they be eating next as the rabbits are gone?
Turn wild python into a delicacy and that will solve the problem.
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Troy Landry tried eating Python. He said it tasted like somebody cooked a tire off his Jeep.
Why aren’t they called Myanmarese pythons?
If, you say so.
Get rid of the damn pythons. Got enough damn dimocRATS to deal with. Bedides they’re not nice to people...
MISSING GRANDMA’S BODY FOUND IN MONSTER PYTHON
THAT SWALLOWED HER WHOLE......Indonesia
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