Burm tests in SC

[TheresaBearden]

What saddens me most about this study is the fact the burms will suffer and most likely die where they are-I live 2 hours southwest of Aiken (outside of Charleston) and the burms we have would not survive in the temps we have during the winter-it freezes here and gets into the 20's at times.

[The Beast]

There is no way that burms will survive the winter in SC.

[Brewster320]

has ANYONE ever seen substantiated reports of any large constrictor EVER successfully eating a human(even a small child)? Everything I have come across has been unsubstantiated or even proven to be a complete hoax(the guy half-inside a dead retic's sliced open stomach for example)

I don't think theres ever been a true report but I honestly would be surprised if something like that has never happened befre, especially with a small person or child. But obviously its not a common ocurrence, especially with no truely monster pythons existing anymore in the wild.

Hopefully this "test" proves how stupid that map was. It may not be humane for kind for those snakes but its fr the good of the species in the hobby and for there reputation.

[RebelYell83]

i believe it was the guy from vpi,or snake keeper,that did his own temp tests,as well as i believe eugene besset,i could be mistaken,that did temp tests,that showed at 60 degrees for extrended times,burms suffer massive if not complete die off,they cant even live in orlando fla int he winter,let alone SC,why dont they do this closer to the everglades where the issue is,and stomp out any speculation,when this shows they live in sc,they will still claim as far north as georgia and over to cali,up to arizona on the west side,it will never end

and as far as a snake eating a human,i am kinda sure,if you have a 19 ft anaconda or burm,and you have a 5'2" 115 pound woman,if it started from the feet,it wouldnt be an issue at all,maybe even a good bit larger person,considering thier stretchy,and the prey sizes they tend to eat in the wild

[Emmastaff]

Poodles? Now come on, my poodle is 70lbs! Not easy prey by any means! It is quite unfair to portray all poodles as easy prey people!
I agree it is a inhumane way to test whether they will survive. I mean, I doubt anyone would stand by while they filled a pit with cats or some other fluffy feral species. Are they feeding the pythons?

[MasonC2K]

has ANYONE ever seen substantiated reports of any large constrictor EVER successfully eating a human(even a small child)? Everything I have come across has been unsubstantiated or even proven to be a complete hoax(the guy half-inside a dead retic's sliced open stomach for example)

Perhaps not eaten, but certainly killed and tried:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,,24242797-401,00.html

A PYTHON has killed a student zookeper at the weekend and was caught trying to swallow the man's body when horrified coworkers arrived, Venezuela's El Universal newspaper reports.
The other employees of the Caracas zoo had to beat the 3m-long Burmese Python to make it release the body of 29-year-old Erick Arrieta, whose head it was swallowing.

According to the daily, Mr Arrieta had been working the nightshift alone on Saturday, looking after the reptile section of the zoo.

The university biology student had broken the park's rules by entering the cage holding the snake, which had been donated two months ago and was not on public display, according to the zoo's management.

A snake bite on his arm indicated the python had attacked Mr Arrieta before wrapping itself around him and crushing him to death.

"The young man underestimated the animal's instinct," said the director general of the Parque del Este zoo, Javier Hernandez.

[Ben Biscy]

Poodles? Now come on, my poodle is 70lbs! Not easy prey by any means! It is quite unfair to portray all poodles as easy prey people!
I agree it is a inhumane way to test whether they will survive. I mean, I doubt anyone would stand by while they filled a pit with cats or some other fluffy feral species. Are they feeding the pythons?

my money would be on the poodles, meanest dogs on earth!

[kc261]

I agree it is a inhumane way to test whether they will survive. I mean, I doubt anyone would stand by while they filled a pit with cats or some other fluffy feral species. Are they feeding the pythons?

I would be extremely surprised if they are not making sure the snakes are getting enough to eat. The study would be useless if the results come back that the snakes starved to death. They want to find out what the temperatures do to them.

Unfortunately, I don't see any other way to test if they can survive the cold temps than to expose them to the cold temps. And to conclude "they can't survive", they will have to have fatalities.

And while you are correct that doing this to snakes will cause less of an uproar than a similar experiment done on something fluffy, don't fool yourself into thinking that these kinds of experiments aren't done all the time, even to fluffy animals.

I am sad for these 7 snakes. But I'd much rather have these 7 snakes slowly die of exposure to the cold winter than to have our entire hobby slowly (or not so slowly) die of exposure to negative press based off of totally false "scientific" reports.

[MarkS]

What saddens me most about this study is the fact the burms will suffer and most likely die where they are-I live 2 hours southwest of Aiken (outside of Charleston) and the burms we have would not survive in the temps we have during the winter-it freezes here and gets into the 20's at times.

Remember that these are pythons that were captured in Florida, if they hadn't been saved for the experiment they would have been put to death anyway.

[West Coast Jungle]

Unfortunately for the burms they will probably die from a nasty respitory infection. Should be pretty obvious, they come from tropical asia not North America. The Everglades/south Florida(asides from Hawaii) is the only place in the USA where that even comes close to their natural climate and is the only reason they can establish there.

In the long run this may be good for herpers because it will put some of these ridiculous myths to rest. I think the big question to the ones conducting the test is can they burrow down like other reptiles and find a way to escape the extreme cold and survive. this scenario is very unlikely and should prove to be the death of them.

What concerns me with these reports of these escapes burmese python populations is when the leave out the burmese and just say python. There are many many python species but most people are only aware of the really big one that ate some guy in some country so they think that all pythons are huge and dangerous. Not mentioning the species hides certain facts.

Its like saying a feline and not mentioning if its a tiger or a house cat, obviously two very different animals. I think that ridiculous report on pythons traveling all over the USA was based on 100's of python species, which come from many different places in the world and not just the ones in question. This is where they are pulling the wool over the publics eyes with out then realizing it.

The main problem with all the big snakes are the uneducated and undevoted people who buy then as little babies and then dont want to deal with them (or know how) when they get big and intimidating. They end up on the news and scare the crap out of everyone. Of course we never hear of the 10,000's of responsible herpers on the news, just like pits only the bad ones get news coverage.

It is this small irresponsible group which is ruining it for everyone.










People need education and facts not myths.