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Post by ferris1248 on Sept 18, 2024 6:37:32 GMT -5
Seems like they ought to do this every month. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced the final results and winners of the 2024 Florida Python Challenge. There were 857 participants from 33 states and Canada to help support the Everglades conservation by removing 195 invasive Burmese pythons from South Florida. The 2024 Florida Python Challenge winners were announced at the FWC’s Commission Meeting in Duck Key. The ultimate grand prize winner was Ronald Kiger, who removed 20 Burmese pythons, winning $10,000, FWC said The FWC said the Florida Python Challenge is to increase awareness about invasive species and the threats they pose.. Burmese pythons are not native to Florida and negatively impact native species. The FWC said since 2000, more than 22,000 Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida. www.yahoo.com/news/snake-hunter-wins-10k-florida-200247582.html |
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Post by illinoisfisherman on Sept 18, 2024 7:13:54 GMT -5
22,000 oh my!
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Post by Mynki on Sept 18, 2024 8:19:44 GMT -5
With their high rate of fecundity, 22,000 is a drop in the ocean.
I said over a decade ago that FWC needed to offer large bounty's to attract enough people to remove more. They need to fund a large team of python hunters working year round to stop them predating on everything else. I imagine others will be saying the same decades from now.
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Post by TRTerror on Sept 18, 2024 8:32:37 GMT -5
Don't matter....
Your never gonna get ALL of them...Never.
See lots of places them snakes hang out are either Off Limits , or Inaccessible.
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Post by ferris1248 on Sept 18, 2024 8:48:31 GMT -5
Don't matter.... Your never gonna get ALL of them...Never. See lots of places them snakes hang out are either Off Limits , or Inaccessible. Source? |
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Post by gogittum on Sept 18, 2024 10:56:01 GMT -5
Don't matter.... Your never gonna get ALL of them...Never. See lots of places them snakes hang out are either Off Limits , or Inaccessible. Source? He does make a point, and he's right - we're never going to get all of them. Best we'll ever do is knock their numbers down some. Thing that baffles me is that, as I understand it, there are large areas where it's illegal to hunt them. It should be a total effort throughout the whole state. Then we get that loony Tally lawmaker who doesn't want them hurt - gentle killing (??) only, please. Lunacy. |
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Post by Mynki on Sept 18, 2024 11:07:44 GMT -5
I think what TRT means is there are privately owned properties where python hunters will never be allowed. As well as areas where they simply can't get too also.
He's rights, they will never be eradicated. The Glades are just too big and too wild to find them all.
But a much bigger effort is needed to reduce their numbers before they eat everything else.
Ferris, if this is a subject you're interested in, I'd highly recommend the book, Snake in the grass: An Everglades Invasion by Larry Perez. It's 12 years old now, but still well worth a read.
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Post by johnnybandit on Sept 18, 2024 11:54:10 GMT -5
Don't matter.... Your never gonna get ALL of them...Never. See lots of places them snakes hang out are either Off Limits , or Inaccessible. Source?
He is not wrong.... There are tons of acres of private property that python hunters will never have access to.
And while the Everglades National Park technically does allow some hunting by private contract hunters contracted through the FWC.... The restrictions and limitations placed by the national park service makes it impossible to be remotely successful.
Add to that... The highly secretive nature of snakes in general... And give the fact that Burmese Pythons are semi aquatic.... you could hire 10 thousand experts and you will not get them all...
And then you have the fact that the females lay a lot of eggs... especially the bigger females... And Pythons are one of the few species of snake that guard their eggs... There is not much of a risk of significant egg predation. Then the babies hatch... They are almost two feet long... Already too large for a number of species that prey on snakes to handle.... And by the time they are about three years old, they are off the menu for every native predator we have except for alligators....
When they first started showing up in Florida... A lot of people including scientists, felt that as soon as we had a freeze that dipped down into the everglades they woulod be killed off..... I knew that was a load of shit.... For several reasons... I have owned Burms... The average person does not realize just how resilient they are.... Plus they are very highly adaptable.... They have one of the largest if not the largest (I think the largest but I do not have time to look it up right now) Native range of any snake species in the world... They occur in tropical, subtropical, semi arid and even temperate regions. Their native range goes all the way into Nepal and the foothills of the Himalayas....
This particular population we have in Florida is becoming better adapted with each generation. And they are without a doubt moving north... There is nothing to stop them from moving as far north as at least the Carolinas, west through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas... The migration will be slow... but they will get there... Nothing to stop them
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Post by swampdog on Sept 18, 2024 12:07:50 GMT -5
If the move north is true JB, and it probably is, then Florida's elected should be soliciting help from the neighbor states or the Feds.
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Post by TRTerror on Sept 18, 2024 12:32:14 GMT -5
Lots of them snakes live in Everglades N. Park and are accessible only by air boats. Ask me how the NPS feels about Air boats running thru their Park..
I lived in a 6 Thousand acre private farm just west of Big Cypress..ask me how many folks they let roam the Farm looking for them..
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Post by OhMy on Sept 18, 2024 13:12:49 GMT -5
Lots of them snakes live in Everglades N. Park and are accessible only by air boats. Ask me how the NPS feels about Air boats running thru their Park.. I lived in a 6 Thousand acre private farm just west of Big Cypress..ask me how many folks they let roam the Farm looking for them.. TRT is the "source" and a darn good one too. |
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Post by stc1993 on Sept 18, 2024 13:18:55 GMT -5
I read they are moving N too. It said they're learning to go underground when it gets to cold.
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Post by olmucky on Sept 19, 2024 15:33:21 GMT -5
Indeed! Now imagine how many breeders are out there and how many can they produce a year!! |
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