Saw this in my news feed. I remember when this started, and it is good to see that it is still going on. If I lived in the area I would probably take a stab at this event. Hope they do something similar about Lion fish. Grand prize winner removed 20 Burmese pythons from the wild in Florida challenge “Over 14,000 pythons have been successfully removed by FWC and South Florida Water Management District contractors since 2017,” said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in a news release. “This collective effort continues to have a direct positive impact on the Everglades and our native wildlife through removal and awareness.”
14,000 is a lot of snakes. But the hunts have all occurred on state lands. None have occurred on the 1.5 million acres of Everglades NP. I wonder how many multiples of 14,000 are in there. - Python Challenge
Because its the Feds. Thats the way they roll. Will absolutely not permit a bunch of yahoos onto “their” land for the taking of wildlife. Similarly, their sworn officers can shoot feral hogs (a major food item of the endangered FL panther) but not the public. Personal bias i have against the NPS from trying to work with them in S. FL. I finally decided in the 80s that their mission was world domination and I haven’t yet changed my mind. To be somewhat fair to an agency that does not deserve it - access into ENP is problematic with few roads and their prohibition of airboats operating in the backcountry
Don't snakes engage in cannibalism? Without a natural predator here and a booming density in population, do pythons eat other in large numbers? Obviously not fast enough, but almost seems like they'd run out of food with so many of them.
While I completely agree with your sentiment I would be much, much more comfortable taking a shot at this event rather than a stab at it.
Can’t speak on the NPS specifically, but I can tell you that your post is applicable to DoD and EPA as well.
I want to make it clear that I disagree but some South Floridians with roots going back decades would add Cubans to the list.
Has anyone ever read about the cobra roundup in India. Long story short but it was more profitable to breed cobras then to capture them.
The difference is that the cobras are indigenous in India. The pythons in South Florida and especially the Everglades are an extremely destructive invasive species.
Every bit helps I guess, but I read a while back that the state thinks there are between 100k and 300k pythons in south Florida. So 14k taken out over 7 years is a drop in the bucket. Probably doesn’t even impact the population growth much, as it just opens a territory for another one. Same concept as hunting in limited numbers. They have tried all kinds of things, it’s gonna take something really radical or absolutely game changing to get rid of them.
Well in India they ended up with more cobra someone will start breeding pythons to turn in for the bounty.
good news is that grouper, eels, cudas, and others have learned how to eat the lionfish so they are starting to have some natural predators wrt the pythons, the most impact is tagging the males and then waiting on them to aggregate to breed and then go in and take out the big breeding females
