Python season set to begin: Hunters learn how to catch critters in Everglades

[depakid]

Joe Mennine and Ismael Vasquez, co-workers from Jupiter, were tooling down an Everglades canal in an airboat Monday when Vasquez saw a distinctive black-blotched snake, about five feet long, on the levee. Having completed a ``Pythons 101'' crash course given by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission less than an hour earlier, Vasquez recognized it as a Burmese python. He pointed it out to Mennine, who jumped out and grabbed it.

``It tried to bite me, but it bit itself,'' Mennine said. ``I grabbed it by its head and threw it in a bag.'' The two returned to the boat ramp and turned the snake over to their FWC instructors. ``I can't wait to do it again,'' a breathless Vasquez said. ``I'm a newbie -- my very first time. The training definitely helped me know what to look out for.''

The two hunters were among about 50 who gathered at the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area off the Tamiami Trail on Monday for the FWC announcement of a special hunting season for reptiles of concern on state lands.

From March 8 through April 17, anyone with a hunting license and a $26 management area permit may kill exotic, invasive snakes -- including the Indian python, reticulated python, northern and southern African rock python, amethystine or scrub python, green anaconda and Nile monitor lizard. The hunting grounds are the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor, Holey Land and Rotenberger wildlife management areas. Legal weapons include pistols, shotguns and rifles, but no centerfire rifles.

Exotic snakes -- especially the Burmese python -- have become a big problem in the Everglades. Growing up to 26 feet long, the Burmese is a constrictor that preys on native Florida mammals, birds and reptiles, including the endangered Key Largo wood rat. No one knows how many live in the Glades, but more than 300 were removed from Everglades National Park in 2008 alone. From the park, the snakes have spread north to the Big Cypress National Preserve and south to Key Largo.

Hunters said they would be happy to help stop the spread. ``We feel we have the knowledge, responsibility and technical ability to take care of this problem,'' said Bishop Wright Jr., president of the Florida Airboat Association. ``We are the best tool in the toolbox in this situation.''

To give hunters their best shot, the FWC brought in some of its own officers, plus local breeders and trappers, for Monday's news conference and training session. Biologist Shawn Heflick and reptile breeder Michael Cole provided a rundown on the reptiles' biology, behavior, diet and habitat. They even brought along two ``demo'' snakes -- a large, pet male named Fluffy and a smaller, rambunctious wild python caught recently in the Everglades -- for lessons in safe handling and capture.

Heflick said the best time to hunt snakes is during the cooler months, when the cold-blooded reptiles sun themselves and ambush prey -- such as rabbits and rats -- along canal levees, in tree islands and in brush and debris piles.

More: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/22/1494647/hunters-learn-how-to-catch-pythons.html

[RT Atlanta]

1. Happy hunting...

As someone who enjoys running in the backwoods of Florida, including hiking there with my children, this kind of invasive reptile scares the shit out of me - I hope the hunters have much success.

[hlthe2b]

2. No centerfire rifles.... what is a centerfire rifle?

Please spare me the technical definition.. I just want to know how it differs from the legal pistol, shotguns, rifles that they allow to be used...

[Gman]

5. A centerfire generally is much more powerful and has a bigger slug

with bigger impact power. I would guess you can't use them because they're too powerful. Possibly too powerful to the point the slug passes through without doing much in the way of killing the snake, but only injuring it.

[hlthe2b]

7. thanks....

[FBaggins]

6. They're basically limiting rifles to a .22

commonly used for "pest control"... less noise... less power (so a missed shot is less likely to travel to the next county and hit a person).

[hlthe2b]

8. I see... thanks

[madokie]

9. A center fire has the cap that sets off the explosion that propels the projectile in the center

of the non-business end of the cartridge . a rim fire is like a 22 caliber where the firing pin pinches the lip on that same end of the bullet. No large caliber rifles I know of uses the non centerfire like the 22 does. In other word with this language they are making it plain that they don't want any 30-30's or 30-06's used nor the AR 15 or any of the assault type guns

[Spoonman]

14. A couple of corrections

An AR 15 is a .22 caliber cartridge.

A ".22" is a 22 long rifle. It is a rim fire cartridge. The rim at the BASE of the case is pinched by the firing pin to initiate discharge. (opposite end of the bullet)

The main reason for the exclusion is that center fire calibers have higher velocities, and thus can travel further and ricochet easier. Even though center fire ammo will do greater amounts of damage, they are inappropriate for short range hunting.

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. That place sounds like loads of fun.

F**k that.

[hlthe2b]

4. Miccosukee Indian tribe lives west of Miami in the Everglades

along Alligator Alley. Their kids are totally at home with the alligators that come up to their homes (despite their casino and other tourist-related fixtures,some still live in fairly traditional dwellings) However, one of their tribal police officers told me as a whole, the tribe are terrified of snakes and their police force spends lots of time dealing with that... Of course this was several years before these big invasive non-indigenous snakes became a problem. I can imagine how they must feel now!

[TheCowsCameHome]

10. Not for me, thanks.

I get squeamish just watching them on TV.

[depakid]

11. Big snakes out there alright

This one ate a gator and then burst:

[Bryn]

13. I remember when this happened

I was there, living in Homestead/Florida City, five miles from the Glades, at that time.

Those snakes need to be removed. They don't belong in the Everglades.

[XemaSab]

16. No matter how many times I see that picture

I die a little inside every time. :cry:

[depakid]

18. Have a look at these beauties:

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Snakes on the Table: Researchers attach a radio tracker to a Burmese python.
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For years, Burmese pythons have invaded Florida’s Everglades National Park, preying on indigenous species. Tracking them down has proven time consuming and difficult, so Park wardens have begun testing a new hunting method imported straight from the front lines of the War on Terror: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and thermal imaging technology.

David Hallac of The National Park Service already uses manned, fixed-wing aircraft to search the Everglades for birds, and he said moving to UAVs to cut down on costs is the natural next step.

Additionally, recent tests by the scientists at the University of Florida have shown that thermal imaging can detect the snakes, even though their cold-blooded bodies reflect the heat of their environment.

According to Frank Mazzotti, an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Florida and one of the scientists who hunts for the pythons, the snakes regulate the temperature of their nests in a way that makes them easily visible through thermal imaging.

Despite being cold blooded, the pythons keep their nests cool in the heat, and shiver to warm up the nests when it gets too cold, providing a heat contrast to the surrounding environment.

“Whether its really hot or really cold, the nest stands out on the thermal imager,” said Mazzotti. “Someone using that to find python nests might be the best move, because by going for the nests, you target the population.”

More: http://tothewire.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/giant-pythons-invade-florida-wrath-of-god-or-the-best-of-intelligent-design/

[XemaSab]

19. It's not the "big snake" think that skeeves me so much

as the "big snake that ate an alligator SO BIG THAT THE SNAKE RIPPED ITSELF OPEN."

That's the horror-film aspect of it.

That being said, the cottonmouth the size of Snake #2 that I saw in South Carolina still haunts me to this day. :scared:

[emmadoggy]

20. Yeah.

That picture skeeves me out every time I see it too. :scared:

[phantom power]

12. Our new biosphere is *awesome*

:woohoo:

[petronius]

15. Does anyone else laugh when a person is described as being "from Jupiter?"

For some reason, that city name always gets me.

This sounds like a good idea - especially if it's not so lucrative that people start crowding in like a gold rush...

[hatrack]

17. I thought Sun Ra was from Ju . . . no, wait, he was from Saturn. Sorry, my bad!