FL - Huge pythons devouring mid-sized mammal population

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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How HUGE pythons are wiping out Florida mammal populations (Daily Mail)
A burgeoning population of huge pythons — many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big — appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically — as much as 99 percent, in some cases — in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.

Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.
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more, with "Omigod, look at that huge python!" pics, at link above
 
from your link:
The National Park Service has counted 1,825 Burmese pythons that have been caught in and around Everglades National Park since 2000.
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That is just scary. What are they doing with them?

When they eat up all the "medium-sized mammals" then what?
 
MagnoliaMom said:
from your link:


That is just scary. What are they doing with them?

When they eat up all the "medium-sized mammals" then what?
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Not sure of a python's hunting habits, but I assume they could start coming over fences and eating mid-sized yard dogs in suburban neighborhoods.
 
so I say everyone down there go python-hunting

I prefer mammals

how important are snakes to the eco-system anyway ...
 
wfgodot said:
Not sure of a python's hunting habits, but I assume they could start coming over fences and eating mid-sized yard dogs in suburban neighborhoods.
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exactly, people's cats, dogs and rabbits are next!
 
LadyL said:
so I say everyone down there go python-hunting

I prefer mammals

how important are snakes to the eco-system anyway ...
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Um, snakes are essential to most eco-systems, including Florida's.

However, THESE snakes (the pythons) are not native to Florida and Florida's native species have not evolved to cope with pythons.
 
wfgodot said:
Not sure of a python's hunting habits, but I assume they could start coming over fences and eating mid-sized yard dogs in suburban neighborhoods.
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I'm just guessing since I don't know which fence you mean, but in general, I think a large snake would be more likely to burrow under a fence than climb over it.

So, yes, the pythons will threaten people's pets (as coyotes already do) and eventually even children.
 
Nova said:
I'm just guessing since I don't know which fence you mean, but in general, I think a large snake would be more likely to burrow under a fence than climb over it.

So, yes, the pythons will threaten people's pets (as coyotes already do) and eventually even children.
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A 16' foot python, I'm imagining, could just sort of coil itself up and be over a standard chainlink in a very short time. Now pardon me while I faint after thinking about such a thing.

I'm sort of basing this on the troubling tale of how the blacksnake got in through a hole in the closet and ate my finches, who were in a cage extended upon a pole.
 
wfgodot said:
A 16' foot python, I'm imagining, could just sort of coil itself up and be over a standard chainlink in a very short time. Now pardon me while I faint after thinking about such a thing.

I'm sort of basing this on the troubling tale of how the blacksnake got in through a hole in the closet and ate my finches, who were in a cage extended upon a pole.
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If you don't mind, I'll just faint right along side of you. Snakes are my biggest fear. I'm terrified of them. And I live in Arkansas, where we have lots of snakes.

I think they have had python hunts in Florida, I seen it on Discovery or somewhere.

I'm sorry about your finches wfgodot.
 
tezi said:
If you don't mind, I'll just faint right along side of you. Snakes are my biggest fear. I'm terrified of them. And I live in Arkansas, where we have lots of snakes.

I think they have had python hunts in Florida, I seen it on Discovery or somewhere.

I'm sorry about your finches wfgodot.
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Thanks.

The same snake had gotten up to mischief weeks before by killing one of my parakeets. I looked all over for his point of entry and covered it up, thinking Mr. Snake had long since left the premises. Wrong! In the house, evidently, the whole time. (During which, I later remembered, I never saw many mice.) The finch meal proved too tempting for him - he ate three plus two eggs, and I found him dead at the bottom of the cage; evidently, he'd eaten so much that the exertion of trying to squeeze his fat self back out, between the bars, was too much for him.
 
I am so sorry about your birds, wfgodot! That is terrible.

Maybe they're anchoring chain-link fences really well these days to keep the gators from squeezing under them. But remembering the ones we had in South Florida when I was a kid, going under would have been easier for a snake.

But, hey, I have an INDOOR cat. I admit I'd be worried sick about any pet I left outside.
 
Nova said:
I'm just guessing since I don't know which fence you mean, but in general, I think a large snake would be more likely to burrow under a fence than climb over it.

So, yes, the pythons will threaten people's pets (as coyotes already do) and eventually even children.
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Florida couple on trial after pet python kills child

(Reuters) - Trial proceedings began on Monday for a central Florida mother and her boyfriend who are accused of allowing their pet python to strangle a 2-year-old girl in her crib.

Jaren Hare, 21, and boyfriend Charles Darnell, 34, were charged with manslaughter, third-degree murder and child neglect after the July 1, 2009, death of Hare's daughter, Shaianna Hare, in Bushnell northwest of Orlando.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/us-crime-python-idUSTRE76A6YW20110711

Florida Couple Found Guilty After Pet Python Strangles Girl

It took the jury less than two hours to find Jaren Hare and her boyfriend Charles Darnel guilty on all charges in the death of Hare's young daughter, who was killed by their pet python.

They were found guilty of third-degree murder, manslaughter and child abuse. Hare's 2-year-old daughter, Shaianna, was killed by the pet Burmese python two years ago, when the snake escaped from its enclosure and strangled the girl in her crib. The snake's tank was only equipped with a quilt for a lid.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-couple-found-guilty-pet-python-strangles-girl/story?id=14081180
 
You guys not watch the show Python Hunters It's one of my fav's . There is one picture of a huge bermize python that ate a huge alligator but the alligator wasn't dead and clawed the inside of the snake untill it bursted open .Im sure there is a pic online of it somewhere...Florrida has become taken over by the monitor lizards they can get to 6 feet long and they do feed on familly pets .same as the Iguana its a invaded species too but its harmless It only eats frass and leafs...
 
Nobody ever said what they do with the ones they capture (all 1825 of them and counting). I looked around online but I don't see anything on where they go after capture. That is too many for the zoo.
 
MagnoliaMom said:
Nobody ever said what they do with the ones they capture (all 1825 of them and counting). I looked around online but I don't see anything on where they go after capture. That is too many for the zoo.
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I understand this is wrong of me in principle, but I honestly wouldn't care what happened to almost 2,000 pythons, as long as they were no longer prowling my neighborhood.

This is quite hypocritical of me, because I do care what happens to other top predators, such as wolves, coyotes, mountain lions and bears. I want them removed when they threaten people and pets, but I don't want them destroyed unless it is absolutely necessary.
 
Daily Mail, continuing to play up its Swamp Horror! theme:

Caught just in time: Mammoth python captured in Florida cut open to reveal 59 baby snakes poised to ravage the Everglades
This monstrous creature was poised to unleash hell on one of America’s most precious and fragile ecosystems.

But with great luck, the vast and menacing Burmese python was caught by rangers in Florida before it could lay eggs containing the 59 super-predators inside her.

The image was taken in 2009 but the problem is a very pressing one in 2012. Nothing and no one is safe when these marauding foreign invaders emerge from the fetid swamp that has become their home.
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more, with disturbing pictures, at link above
 
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