Where are all the dead Pythons??????

[Big Gunns]

It would seem to Big Gunns that if 90% of the Pythons froze and died in Florida there would be a lot of dead Python bones around. From experience Big Gunns knows these things just don't disappear into thin air....even if animals do eat them. An 18 foot 20 year old Burm gave BG this "experience".

BG has heard different estimates on the deaths...50..60..90%, but if you take any one of those percentages and realize that 50% of 100,000 is 50 thousand dead Pythons. These bones should not be too hard to find. Hopefully USARK and everyone asks those "experts" where all the bones are. Trust BG...these long skeletons will be around for months and months. Well...if the numbers are correct they will be. They'll probably just try and twist it and say they must still be alive. Funny how the microchipped ones died though.

[mr. s]

Well, how much do we know about what these snakes do when they are dying in nature? Do they die in the water? Do they find a deep hole or burrow? Maybe they all just slowed down so much that the crocs got them?
That'd be super cool to find a hug burm skull to bring home and put on the mantle!!!

[Brewster320]

Another thing to think about, rodent like beavers, porcipines, rats, groundhogs, squirrels, ect are know to chew on antlers and bones when they find them. Even if they didn't chew the entire bone it would still be pretty unreconizible.

Also if a gator or croc ate them (weather they were still alive or already dead) there wouldn't be anything left.

[Lucas339]

this area is not exactly a walk in the park either. there is dense vegetation all around. i doubt there is anyone even looking for the bodies. im sure there is some protocol going on right now as well where if the bodies are found by park rangers, they are turned into the everglades scientist.

[j_h_smith]

As with all dead animals in the wild, they usually are taken care by the critters that are present. When an animal dies in the wild, the entire wilderness population feasts. Then the microbes get involved and before you know it, there is no sign of that dead animal. Animals as large as deer, elk, and bear are usually eatened within a few days, then the microbes finish the job in less than a week. With these snakes, the feasting would be quick and easy. There would probably be no bones left. The types of animals in the Everglades would tend to account for a really quick meal, not allowing an observer to see much. With the size fo the bones in these snakes, even if the llittle critters were feasting on the snakes, it would be almost impopssible to see any bones laying on the ground or in the water.

As someone else mentioned, many of these snakes probably died in a den or burrow. We will probably never know how many died.

This also happened at a good time for the propagation or lack there of. Many of these snakes would have bred this year. I would think that the larger females couldn't have gotten deep enough to thermoregulate, so my guess is that most of the snakes that died were females. At least the larger breeders.

I don't know that we'll ever have numbers to study, but I do know that with the "new found" knowledge that snakes can't llive in these temperatures, we've shined the light on many problems with the "offical" reports that these snakes will be seen in New York City in the next 25 years. Even the Congress Critters have to take a second look at the legislation.

Jim Smith

[Big Gunns]

Big Gunns is here to tell you that if 50,000 Burmese Pythons died there would be bodies all over the place, just like there was with the Iguanas. The skeleton of a large snake will stick around for a long time. There is people looking all over for them. If they died in the water, they would float. All the Gators are not gonna eat all of them, although they would if they happened across them.

Big Gunns is saying that there would have been dead bodies everywhere. They found the dead gators and crocs right? They even gave a number of how many crocs died.....because they found them.

There were some Burms found, but not 50,000....and 50,000 is the low estimate of how many died if there really is 100,000 of them. To Big Gunns...this 100% proves that their estimate of how many there are is total BS.

[kellysballs]

I agree with BG that this should help to "prove" that the estimates of how many burms are out there is total BS.

[Beardedragon]

I cant add much to this, but like NeilGunns ( Which I just noticed sounds like NailGun...) says, IF there REALLY is 100,000 snakes out there, we would be finding the bones. Not only that, but where are all of the 50,000 LIVING snakes that should be left? If you watched some of the videos, people are having trouble finding them dead, or alive.

What im trying to say is, the 100,000 estimate is total BS.

[j_h_smith]

Do you guys know how large the Everglades are? 100,000 snakes could easily hide in the Everglades. I would venture a guess that the researchers haven't surveyed 10% of the Everglades for snakes. It would be impossible. You would need the Army Corp of Engineers and then give them 25 years.

Regardless of the number of snakes, dead or alive, this information will probably be enough to prevent this bill from becoming law.

Jim Smith

[Emilio]

I have to agree with the OP the numbers thrown out there by the govt are crazy. Now when it comes to the dead snakes, vulchers( the nasty birds) must of had a field day.