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| Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes? | |||||
| 2006-06-15 | |||||
With hurricane season underway, and alligators on the rampage, and sharks looking for lunch, does Florida really need Burmese pythons?
At this point, no one even knows exactly how many pythons are in the Everglades. "There's no credible estimate," says Mazzotti. "But 95 were removed from Everglades National Park in 2005, without a deliberate effort to catch them. And if you catch 10 percent of a population you usually think you've done astoundingly well. "There are lots out there. It could easily be in the thousands." And here's the root of the problem: Young Burmese pythons can be bought at flea markets and pet stores throughout South Florida for about $20, Mazzotti says, and they are a hot item. But they don't stay young for long, and they don't stay small. In time, they become too much to handle as pets. "You have to regularly kill large animals, like rabbits, to feed it, and it can grow to 200 pounds, and it defecates like a horse," Mazzotti says. So what do the owners do? They release them into the swamps, where they go forth and multiply. Scientists from several institutions, including the National Park Service, have joined Mazzotti's team in hopes of controlling, if not eradicating, the python population. But that's pretty hard when it's uncertain how many are out there and where they hang out. So to answer several basic questions, the scientists hit upon an intriguing, although somewhat risky, strategy. Last winter they captured four pythons from the Everglades, stitched radio transmitters onto them, and released them back into the wild. The hope was that the released snakes would lead the researchers to other pythons, at least during the breeding season. Mazzotti calls them "Judas snakes." It worked. Twelve snakes were captured, and a number of key questions were answered. Most pythons have been seen near roads or other manmade structures, so officials had hoped they had not ventured too deeply into the park. But that turned out not to be the case. They are everywhere. "Burmese pythons are right in the heart of Everglades National Park," Mazzotti says. And they are wreaking havoc on the system, eating everything from gray squirrels to bobcats and threatening efforts to restore native species to the park. Unfortunately, it's an ideal home for pythons. They are "habitat generalists," meaning they like to live between wet and dry areas, and they like to climb trees, and they are good swimmers, and there's lots of animals for them to eat. That's also just the kind of environment that appeals to alligators. "So here they are, hanging out in the same places, doing the same things," Mazzotti says. "And on more than one occasion, several of which were witnessed by the public, they have gotten in fights." Last fall one python tried to swallow an alligator. The alligator ended up swallowing the python, but the snake was too big to go down all at once. So for a couple of days the alligator wandered around with the tip of the python hanging out of its mouth until the rest could be digested. Pythons are not venomous snakes, but they are hardly defenseless. They can kill their prey by constriction, literally smothering prey to death. And their teeth are something to behold, especially if you're trying to capture one. "They have quite large teeth," says Mazzotti. "They angle backwards because when the snake grabs something it wants to be able to hold onto it and force it down and not let it out." That's what makes capturing pythons interesting. Here's how it's done: "You capture pythons by hand," says Mazzotti. "You cruise the roads, and when you see a python you grab hold of whatever part of the python you can, and hope you're faster than the python. You want to grab its head before it grabs you. By and large, we are very, very successful at that."
Captured pythons are killed, but Mazzotti plans to keep some in his lab in hopes of finding a better way to manage the problem. It would be nice to know, for example, what makes one python attracted to another. Perhaps the right perfume would lure pythons out of the park and into a trap. It's probably too late to eradicate the pythons, but maybe at least some order can be restored. "Maybe we can't get them all out, but if we get them under control and they don't go anywhere else, to me that would be victory," he says.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #18 train em to eat Nutria |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-06-15 21:40 |
| #17 Something about shipping PETA large carnivorus reptiles has a certain appeal, a cause that I feel many rantburgers could support. I'm in for $20, but only if they're venomous too. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2006-06-15 21:33 |
| #16 As an aside, I don't want to diss snakes, or nyokas, as we called 'em, but, heh, I have long drawn an analogy between them and Mossies, I don't trust none of them, not even the "friendlies". As I said, I don't want to diss nyokas. Boesoker, come home. |
| Posted by: As an aside 2006-06-15 20:12 |
| #15 Some timely advice for Florida residents. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-06-15 20:06 |
| #14 Thanks for that, Bruce, puts things in perspective. All those Puff Adders, Gaboon Vipers and Cobras I slotted on the farm in Africa, never mind the boomslangs. I'm trying to tell my Cornsnakes they got nothing to worry about, since Cornelius went awol! Never mind the Royal Python, Monty. Aint seen him since I go my laser-dot for the .22, lol! And the Korean Rat Snake is real worried, too. On a serious note, this is irresponsiblity on the scale of letting moslems into Sweden, ie self-inflicted, no sympathy; but if you want to pay me to kill them I will. Just kidding. |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2006-06-15 19:32 |
| #13 We should send the snakes on a plane! |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2006-06-15 19:19 |
| #12 #10 bruce - now that's a shipping charge I'll gladly help pay! :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-15 18:58 |
| #11 Wait till you guys hear about the giant rats in Orange County that are the size of cats. No lie. Things grow bigger in Texas, but freakin' HUGE here! |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-06-15 18:28 |
| #10 Having bred and kept burmese pythons for some time I can state these are the most laid back large python. They just ain't wired to hunt primates. Retics and african rocks go after monkeys. Burms seem to like birds but don't like to climb. The article doesn't mention that most likely a big part of their diet in the glades most likely is possums and racoons. I have always felt that the gator eaten by the burm was a case of the burm putting the gator to "sleep" like the gator wrasslers do by getting it on its backonce in the belly in came to killing the python. The snake eating the roo is an amethystine python now there is a snake with attitude problems. Talking about nasty reptiles there is a colony of nile monitor lizards(grows to 6') down in Cape Coral. We had a talk from the person doing the same kind thing as with the pythons. Of course once the news went out that he was going to trap and kill the lizards he was contacted by PETA. They told him surely that there was some other way other than killing the trapped lizards. He told them he had $1500 for shipping in his grant budget, could he ship them to their HQ? Something about shipping PETA large carnivorus reptiles has a certain appeal, a cause that I feel many rantburgers could support. |
| Posted by: bruce 2006-06-15 18:24 |
| #9 I was horribly traumatized in childhood by a vivid illustration in "Swiss Family Robinson" of an enormous python swallowing a donkey whole. And alive. *shudder* Not a donkey... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-15 16:17 |
| #8 Where are the Wombats when you really need them? |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2006-06-15 15:27 |
| #7 I was horribly traumatized in childhood by a vivid illustration in "Swiss Family Robinson" of an enormous python swallowing a donkey whole. And alive. *shudder* |
| Posted by: Sgt. Mom 2006-06-15 14:42 |
| #6 Outlaw the selling of weird vermin! |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-06-15 13:48 |
| #5 I remember that pic, Ed and still wonder if a lil' photoshop was used on that. However, I'm sure they're nasty creatures, and will soon tangle more and more with the Gators. Being an Auburn fan myself, this is the first time I'm cheering for the Gators. And, I agree with Steve...cheapest AND quickest way to get rid of them is to open up huntin' season down there. All the trendies in Coral Gables and Miami Beach would just love some snakeskin boots. |
| Posted by: BA 2006-06-15 13:43 |
| #4 Yes, judging from that article, I guess they CAN eat kiddies... |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-15 13:08 |
| #3 Snake bursts after gobbling gator |
| Posted by: ed 2006-06-15 13:00 |
| #2 Yes, but do they eat kiddies? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-15 12:48 |
| #1 does Florida really need Burmese pythons? I've a feeling even Burma would happily do without them. |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-06-15 12:42 |