Forget about rescuing the pythons in the Everglades, let's just kill them all -.-

[The Hedgehog]

First, none of the accreditted scientists are saying there's 150,000 burms in the Everglades. That number was made up by a few media sensationalists writing the article to alarm people. Most estimates are FAR lower. The estimate was also done a few years ago, prior to the two seriously hard winters we had here, which killed off a lot of the burmese in Florida.

Does this mean that there's no burmese problem? No. But it means stop believing every media article you run across. As far as "why only 300" caught? question... it's the Everglades. Have you any idea the size of the Everglades? Have you ever seen it? It's a giant marsh/swamp/waterways, with shifting natural canals designated by floating mats of grass that can be acres in size, with small hillocks of actual ground. Burmese are quite happy to sink under the muddy murky water and grass and sit there for an hour. Exactly how easy do you think it is to find snakes in a swamp? Not every Burmese python in the Everglades is 16 feet either, so don't make the mistake of thinking it'd be easy to spot a "giant snake".

The article doesn't tell people to go out and kill every snake. It DOES show that efforts are being made to eliminate or lessen the impact of the invasive species.

To the one person who stated they would be "setting up" near the Everglades to take burmese in... have you already be designated a Florida resident and gotten a grandfathered-in permit? Because if you dont' ALREADY have a permit, you are not allowed to own burmese. That's state law now. Only people who already had one or more of the prohbited species PRIOR to the law being enacted got the permits. You could apply for a permit for those "restricted" species for about two years, then they changed it to NO further permits, and so anyone who doesn't have a permit, can't get a permit. It was made to allow existing pet owners to keep their pets, not to allow any new pet owners to get the species on the *big five* list.

Burmese are awesome animals, and great pets for those inclined to keep a giant python. They don't belong in the Everglades, they must be removed from the Everglades and there is NO rescue to take in thousands of burmese pythons to house and feed them for up to 30 years(their possible lifespan).

If they have not changed the rules, the state requires any burmese caught in the Everglades to be killed(with the few exceptions of certain permit-holding people). You can(I believe) keep the dead snake for meat and hide if you want. You cannot go to the Everglades, hunt down a burmese python and take it home as a pet.

THANK YOU!

I used to live in SWFL. For those of you who don't understand, the Everglades basically goes from Ft. Myers (West Coast of Florida) across to Northern Ft. Lauderdale and even more north (East Coast of Florida). The actual size of the everglades is absolutely astounding.

As said above, it's a bunch of grass that floats on top of the water and is constantly changing. It's a Burm's paradise.....Which is the problem. The amount of total animals in the everglades is absolutely mind-boggling.

Florida's invasive species are massive in numbers. Even the little brown anoles (Who don't cause too much of an issue) are an invasive species. I'm all for eradicating the Burmese pythons from the everglades. Take yourself out of the shoes of a pet owner, and realize how much damage they are doing to the environment. You might change your mind.

Edit: Added a picture for your reference:


Red is considered "Everglades"
The yellow is basically all the parts that are giant wetlands that is very inaccessible unless you have an airboat.

Hope that covers the actual scope of how large of an area we are talking here. This isn't some small park that can covered in a day.