python hunting

[merdcme]

fox news just aired a piece on python hunting in the everglades via firearms. anyone else see this?

[STEW]

I saw it, but Im at a hospital right now and the freakin volume is off. Using their resource center to get on here right now to see what yall had to say but i see nothing.

Looks like all pythons, anacondas, and monitor lizards are fair game. Then they had the guy wrangling a huge red tail boa on the tv.... wonder if they are included too. Should just say, all big snakes and lizards u see.

[Big Gunns]

This is so dumb. What do you think is gonna happen when a hunter doesn't see a Burmese Python for days? He's gonna shoot native snakes.....that's what. BG doesn't care what they've supposedly been taught. They'll shoot any snake and say "It looked like a Burm to me".

Did you ever notice that people with no clue about snakes think every snake by the water is a Water Moccasin? Every snake that shakes it's tail is a Rattle snake. Every snake with any color is a Coral snake. Well now every big snake in the Everglades is gonna be a Burm. "Big" to the average person is 2 foot plus.

[Russ Lawson]

I agree with BG 100%. This is completely idiotic. Looks like Florida wants to ensure the extinction of all of the threatened snake species in the ENP. I wouldn't put it past a lot of the people this would attract to shoot every snake they happen across regardless of whether or not they can't find a Burmese python in the first few days, or even the first few hours.

A news story about a lady calling the police over a black racer she thought was a burm comes to mind...

[j_h_smith]

You may not agree with it, but this act is the one thing that, if successful, will defeat the efforts by the Congress critters from inacting Federal legislation. If Florida can show them that they have this feral reptile problem under control, Congress would not need to act on this COUNTRY WIDE problem.

Jim Smith

[Russ Lawson]

You may not agree with it, but this act is the one thing that, if successful, will defeat the efforts by the Congress critters from inacting Federal legislation. If Florida can show them that they have this feral reptile problem under control, Congress would not need to act on this COUNTRY WIDE problem.

Jim Smith

I understand that, but unlike invasive species scientists and politicians, I actually do CARE about the native species in Florida, and am not putting on some façade in order to make money or further my own career. The state has already taken plenty of preventative measures for further releases, and measures to control the population. I just feel like they didn't think of the collateral damage that could be caused by an open hunting season for Python bivittatus.

[merdcme]

anyone heard anything about an impact that the cold front that hit the everglades a couple mounths ago had on the python population?

[jason79]

anyone heard anything about an impact that the cold front that hit the everglades a couple mounths ago had on the python population?

I herd an estimated 50% or more died and all the ones that were in a captive outdoor study died.

[mainbutter]

This is so dumb. What do you think is gonna happen when a hunter doesn't see a Burmese Python for days? He's gonna shoot native snakes.....that's what. BG doesn't care what they've supposedly been taught. They'll shoot any snake and say "It looked like a Burm to me".

Did you ever notice that people with no clue about snakes think every snake by the water is a Water Moccasin? Every snake that shakes it's tail is a Rattle snake. Every snake with any color is a Coral snake. Well now every big snake in the Everglades is gonna be a Burm. "Big" to the average person is 2 foot plus.

Because as reptile keepers, we always judge a group of people and wish for regulations dictated by looking at the worst ones of the group that don't behave in a responsible manner.

[marct]

Well I don't know if you all read my thread in the Herp section (Snake attack in our classrooms). This is what Time for Kids sent me to hand out to my students. Find my thread for details. The media and government are taking this too far.