Famed snake trackers from India latest weapon in Florida war on pythons

[Praomys]

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/loca...128233064.html

[cchardwick]

It looks like the state of Florida is paying big bucks to get rid of their snakes, it's no wonder the Government takes all our money LOL. They should get a business advisor to help them out, they could turn this to their advantage. Why not have a 'snake season' and sell licenses and have a bag limit and turn it into a regular hunting season and make some big bucks off of it every year. It would actually stimulate job growth, people would have restaurants specializing in snake meat, people could make snake boots and hand bags, all generating more taxes LOL. The government cracks me up paying $11,000 per snake caught LOLOL. And paying two guys $68,000 a year to catch a snake a day, that's like catching the babies of a half dozen snakes, talk about job security LOLOLOLOLOL.

[bcr229]

While I agree they could charge for the hunts, the meat isn't safe for consumption due to its high mercury content. That's unfortunate because python meat is rather pricey.

The hides could be turned into leather though.

[AbsoluteApril]

I think it's an interesting albeit somewhat odd approach to take but who knows, maybe FL will learn some great tips on how to find them in the wild!

Why not have a 'snake season' and sell licenses and have a bag limit and turn it into a regular hunting season and make some big bucks off of it every year. .

They sort of do but it only runs once month (I think) out of the year: http://pythonchallenge.org/
Teams have to pay to enter and they have a contest with cash awards for longest/biggest caught. Not quite the same as a bounty per snake but people can still get money for hunting them.
The issue is that not a whole heck of a lot of them are found (since the numbers supposedly in the wild are generally believed to be highly exaggerated).
I do like the idea of selling the skins or something so at least there is some good to come out of it (besides getting the invasive species removed of course).

[BPGator]

There's a documentary on Netflix called Exotic Invaders about hunting Burmese pythons and some of the other invasive species in the Everglades. Interesting and shows some of the challenges with trying to eradicate them.


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[cletus]

There's a documentary on Netflix called Exotic Invaders about hunting Burmese pythons and some of the other invasive species in the Everglades. Interesting and shows some of the challenges with trying to eradicate them.


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Good show! I watched it a couple weeks ago.

[Praomys]

... numbers [of Burms] supposedly in the wild are generally believed to be highly exaggerated...

I do agree the estimates are too high. But I suspect the concern of the wildlife officials is that the species is evolving to tolerate cooler Winters, and we've already seen what has happened to populations of raccoons and other wildlife. With less smaller prey available future generations will adapt to preying on deer and other large prey items by growing bigger and faster than their ancestors. It's snowballing out of control. Does anyone know if the largest Florida Burms are larger than the largest Burmese Burms? I would not be surprised.

[pbyeerts]

They opened up a hunting season, with a bounty for each snake. Hundreds of people from all over the US came for what they thought was easy money. They barely caught 68 snakes / they are almost impossible to find.

I think the Indian snake catcher idea is brilliant!


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[pbyeerts]

I do agree the estimates are too high. But I suspect the concern of the wildlife officials is that the species is evolving to tolerate cooler Winters, and we've already seen what has happened to populations of raccoons and other wildlife. With less smaller prey available future generations will adapt to preying on deer and other large prey items by growing bigger and faster than their ancestors. It's snowballing out of control. Does anyone know if the largest Florida Burms are larger than the largest Burmese Burms? I would not be surprised.

There's a big concern about the Burms mating with Rock pythons as well as retics. National Geographic had an article about a "super-snake" with a Burm/Rock mating. The Rocks are just so mean!


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