Pythons. I didn’t know this!
 

So not far from our house is a guy who is apparently some world guru on snakes and he is a snake catcher by profession. He has a pretty impressive huge shed in which he keeps them. The protected species he has to release, others he can euthanase. I stay well away from that shed.
However he’s not a bad guy, stops to chat if he walks past, always calls out hello etc.
On Sunday I saw him walking his dog, he said hello then told me he is just back from working with some forestry people in Florida. Apparently he is well renowned for his knowledge on Burmese Pythons of which there are said to be untold numbers of them in the swamps down there. Some grow to 16 plus feet long!! They are not native to the US and are decimating the wildlife. They can easily take down a cat or a smaller dog. He tells me they are working with some South East Asian departments trying to breed sterile male pythons who will mate but not produce viable offspring.
Gee, some people have different jobs. Amazing.

You can imagine the pick-up lines...hi there, I specialise in giant pythons, what about you cutie?

Pythons are a real and present danger to the ecosystem in the Everglades. FL Fish and Wildlife estimates that pythons are responsible for the 90% decrease in small animal populations in the Glades. When we still lived in S. FL ( ‘12-‘17), there was a photo of a twelve foot python lying dead from attempting to consume a six foot alligator after the python had killed it.

The problem will eventually sort itself out when they decimate their food population. Not saying that having tens of thousand of pythons crawling around in the Everglades is a good thing, but for sure they are loving it at the moment as there are so many species of birds, mammals, fish, etc down there they woln't be looking to hard for their next meal for many years........IMHO...

We've brought in expert trappers from SE Asia, and its open game on Burmese pythons year round. Every so often there are pictures of alligator vs python. The areas that are heavily inhabited are mostly only accessible by airboat.
One of the better ideas I've seen is the solar powered heating blanket that attracts them. This makes it easier to find them and eradicate. Its a never ending battle

Florida has quite a few invasive species that are upsetting the ecosystem. Birds, fish, giant lizards, giant toads, and on and on. Most of them released by some idiot that can't keep a 10-foot python in an aquarium anymore.
The problem with waiting until they just eat themselves out of prey is that there go the native species food source as well..or they are the prey themselves.
Feral hogs are becoming a problem in some parts of the state also.

One invasive species in Florida is the African Rock Python. One very mean snake. Will attack just about everything. Fear is that they will start cross breeding with the Burmese Python which is generally a large snake but not as mean. Breeding them together can result in very large mean snakes. It is believed that the African Rock Python got introduced to Florida by people releasing their pets when they have gotten too big to keep.

One cool thing they're doing now is putting tracking collars on opossums. Then when a python eats one, the tracking signal stops moving and they can go directly to it.

It’s terrible. They are tagging females that attract males and then do away with the male.

Another similar problem is the lion fish. No natural predator. Has Carte Blanche to eat all fish out of the reefs.

I cant stand a small black snake, cant imagine waking up and seeing a python in the front yard! Yes, the lizards are crazy too. Same deal the people that buy them, they get too big and set them free. I was travelling around the Miami area a few years ago and on a chilly morning they were literally falling out of the trees. 2-3' average size. They were thick laying on the banks of the canals. I would not have believed it if I didnt see it myself.

It's already happening with the Indian Rock Python. I saw a show about it several years ago.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ife-180970178/

I have no fear of snakes and used to catch and keep a lot of different non poisonous species when I was a kid. Two weeks ago we were on our way back from a Florida vacation and stopped in Calhoon GA for the night. We visited a rock park close to the hotel. When we exited the vehicle I told my grand kids to watch out for snakes. Seconds later they screamed SNAKE and I went running to see what they had stumbled onto. It was a big Black Rat Snake over 6' long. We took some pics with him then i gently picked him up and carried him to a nearly treeline so no one killed him. He was pretty friendly and didn't even try to bite me. Snakes like these are good for the environment as they ear hundreds of rats and mice every year. We have a few up here around the shop and a few corn snakes as well......
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I don't have any particular fear of snakes either but I don't love them by any means.. Rat snakes and King Snakes along with Eastern Hognose snakes are what I see the most. That's probably why I haven't seen a Copperhead on my property in 20 years and I don't kill them because I hate rats and mice.
But... I never want to cross paths with a hungry 80 or 90 pound constrictor much less a 200 pounder!
Here's a Hognose that was hanging around my carport this summer.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2d13c68c39.jpg

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Being from Florida, its a haven for invasive species. (Dont ask me how I ended up in a damned rust belt after spending most of my life in Florida and California) Many of the exotic fish and reptiles people keep as pets can live there. Im not going to try and spell their real name but those armored sucker catfish that everyone has in their tanks all across the US are in the ponds and rivers there. Pretty much nothing eats them. Burmese and African Rock Pythons. Big South American arapaima, even black caimans.

I follow a dude on Instagram that walks around the glades every night and just pulls invasive species out.

They actually have two different classifications now. Non-native and invasive. The latter being detrimental to the environment.

Whats really wild about the pythons is you can trace the original outbreak to one small pet shop in South Florida that had to be abandoned during Hurricane Andrew. The shop was flattened and the snakes all just slithered away in the storm.

On the bright side lots of native species have made big comebacks since the mid 80s when I was a kid. Goliath grouper were nothing but a myth and now they have a short season for them. The bay has cleaned up so much since my youth, and it really shows in the species that have made a comeback there. Forcing the drag net boats further off shore helped a lot. American Crocodiles arent as rare as they used to be, Panthers have a healthy population too.

I'll be the first to admit I have a great fear of snakes!! Dad grew up on a farm and hated them as well, probably where I got it from. My son on the other hand like you guys mentioned, doesnt have a problem at all. I live in the woods and its not uncommon to see them around. When they get too close to the house my boy will snag them up and take them back to the woods. He forbids me from killing them. I dont like to anyway so with him wrangling them its a good thing for all. I wont panic and scream if I see one, but I surely dont like to be surprised by one either!

I spend most of my free time out looking for snakes. Up here in NJ/NY it’s mostly timber rattlesnakes, black rat snakes, copperheads, racers, milk snakes, etc. There are eastern king snakes down in south NJ (corn snakes as well, but in 49 yrs of searching, I’ve never seen one in NJ). The python problem in FL is legit, and of course it’s man-made. I forget what hurricane did it (maybe Hurricane Andrew?) but a python breeding facility was wiped out during that storm that literally set free hundreds of Burmese pythons. Since the Everglades are sub-tropical, it really was a ‘perfect storm’. I don’t disagree with the eradication efforts, but the likelihood of success is limited, especially across the entire Everglades system. I think they even pay a bounty , but the population is so big now, and dispersed to some very remote areas, that killing a couple hundred a year is not going to make a huge dent.

Here’s a shot from one of the hibernaculums I visit every spring. There were 14 timber rattlesnakes in this basking spot.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...09113c3275.jpg


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Why dont they just let the guys in Fla, just shoot them instead of catching them?

I thought this was about guns! LOL!

I bought a boa, at a pet shop, at the local mall, when I was a kid. It was about the size of a night crawler. Kept it until it was about four feet long. Sold it to a friends cousin. Crazy to think about it now!

My dad was terrified of snakes before he spent three days in a snake pit in Korea to keep from being captured by the Chinese; after that, all snakes were fair game. My Uncle Bill used to tell a story about Dad seeing a snake adjacent to his feet, jumping straight up in the air and firing the rifle he was holding, killing the snake with one shot. Me? I don’t like venomous snakes, but will go out of my way to protect non-venomous snakes. Twice I have had to tell people working for us to not kill non-venomous snakes they might find on our property.