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

[Beardedragon]

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

And yet, they have an estimate on the number of snakes, founded just in time for the bill? I think that the 100,000 is just a bs guess by our government trying to scare people. Maybe they should spend more time trying to get the millions of stray dogs off the street.

Anyways, maybe there is that many snakes on the loose, but right now they cant find them in them even in spots where they have been found in large numbers roaming for years.

[Big Gunns]

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

Trust BG. If there were 50 to 90,000 dead Python, you would find thousands of skeletons everywhere. A snake and it's tough skin, long skeleton, and scales just doesn't disappear like other animals do. It's the same as a Gator. A dead gator will be around for a long time.

[j_h_smith]

Trust BG. If there were 50 to 90,000 dead Python, you would find thousands of skeletons everywhere. A snake and it's tough skin, long skeleton, and scales just doesn't disappear like other animals do. It's the same as a Gator. A dead gator will be around for a long time.

I'm sorry, but the experts disagree with BG. I know it's hard to believe. If deer, elk and bear bones can disappear within a few short weeks, a snake's skeleton doesn't stand a chance. Just small animals alone can strip a snake down to the bones in no time, with many parts of the snake's skeketon going with the small animals. Then what's left of the skeleton wouldn't stand a chance agains the ants, grubs, worms, then you'd have the microbes eating away anything else that was left. Look it up. Nature is very good at cleaning the woods/forest/Everglades.

Jim Smith

[WingedWolfPsion]

He does have a point though--iguana corpses were piling up, but very few burm corpses were found--even though we know most of the microchipped animals died, so the death toll must have been high. If their numbers out there were really that great, there should have been more. The vultures had a HUGE feast, but there was so much death, the scavengers couldn't keep up with it all...alligators, crocs, tropical fish, iguanas, etc etc. People saw corpses everywhere.
Conclusion, there were never many Burms out there to begin with.

[ColinWeaver]

The absence of corpses is an argument for both sides. Proponents of the ban will say there are no corpses because they are still alive and opponents will say there are few corpses because there weren't many to begin with. The arguments negate each other and they don't lead to any clear conclusion, just more speculation. As such, I wouldn't recommend making the lack or pythons bones a bullet point in the argument against the ban.

But, my $.02 is that (1) iguanas do not avoid humans with the same gusto as snakes (so dead iguanas may be more likely to be found) and (2) pythons will tend to stay (and die) in burrows/extremely thick brush (or other forms of dark seclusion). Combine this with the scavenger argument and I don't think we'll ever see much in the way of bones.

[Big Gunns]

I'm sorry, but the experts disagree with BG. I know it's hard to believe. If deer, elk and bear bones can disappear within a few short weeks, a snake's skeleton doesn't stand a chance. Just small animals alone can strip a snake down to the bones in no time, with many parts of the snake's skeketon going with the small animals. Then what's left of the skeleton wouldn't stand a chance agains the ants, grubs, worms, then you'd have the microbes eating away anything else that was left. Look it up. Nature is very good at cleaning the woods/forest/Everglades.

Jim Smith

"A few weeks" is plenty of time to find even 500 dead pythons. They were never there to begin with. Not in those numbers. They seem to know how many Crocs died give or take a few by how many bodies they found. Well????

The absence of corpses is an argument for both sides. Proponents of the ban will say there are no corpses because they are still alive and opponents will say there are few corpses because there weren't many to begin with. The arguments negate each other and they don't lead to any clear conclusion, just more speculation. As such, I wouldn't recommend making the lack or pythons bones a bullet point in the argument against the ban.

But, my $.02 is that (1) iguanas do not avoid humans with the same gusto as snakes (so dead iguanas may be more likely to be found) and (2) pythons will tend to stay (and die) in burrows/extremely thick brush (or other forms of dark seclusion). Combine this with the scavenger argument and I don't think we'll ever see much in the way of bones.

BG made the same point in his original post. They'll try and twist it, but it's harder for them to do so because their microchipped animals died. If they died...so would the others.

[West Coast Jungle]

I completely agree that the 100,000 number was purely fabricated propaganda to scare the American people. This and the bogus USGS report just goes to show how much the Florida legislators will lie and exagerrate to get federal funding.

How come they were able to find the micro chipped animals intact but not the 100,000 others? Surely a many of them should pop up. They found lots of dead alligators, fish and manatees but very few pythons, go figure.

This whole situation has been grossly blown out of proportion and IMO those who lied should be held accountable and prosecuted for misleading the American people and government for their bogus testimony so they could rob money from the Feds and push their extremist ideology at the expense of hard working citizens.

If I ran into a movie theater and yelled fire when there was no danger I would be prosecuted and convicted yet when government agencies do it nothing is done.

[Dragoon]

Animals burrow and freeze and die underground in hybernaculums aka their own graves. Wag theory or statistics will be used over the work to find and count the dead

[Big Gunns]

I completely agree that the 100,000 number was purely fabricated propaganda to scare the American people. This and the bogus USGS report just goes to show how much the Florida legislators will lie and exagerrate to get federal funding.

How come they were able to find the micro chipped animals intact but not the 100,000 others? Surely a many of them should pop up. They found lots of dead alligators, fish and manatees but very few pythons, go figure.

This whole situation has been grossly blown out of proportion and IMO those who lied should be held accountable and prosecuted for misleading the American people and government for their bogus testimony so they could rob money from the Feds and push their extremist ideology at the expense of hard working citizens.

If I ran into a movie theater and yelled fire when there was no danger I would be prosecuted and convicted yet when government agencies do it nothing is done.

BG agrees. More ideas for USARK. BG sees a lawsuit coming also.

Animals burrow and freeze and die underground in hybernaculums aka their own graves. Wag theory or statistics will be used over the work to find and count the dead

All 50 to 90,000 of them were underground??? BG doesn't think so.