re: 18' Florida Python

"We want to show you just how long this thing is...I've got a tape measure.."

At the rate that they are breeding and traveling north, some will be better suited to adapt.

"Are Florida’s Invasive Pythons Adapting to Survive Colder Temperatures?
A recent study suggests that some of Florida's "Burmese pythons" have traces of Indian python DNA that might make them better suited to survive cold snaps and spread north"

https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/florida-pythons-adapting-to-survive-colder-weather/

quote:

---

The real question is who can they be eradicated!

---

The question that I have is why they don't allow people to just shoot them, instead of catching them alive? A shotgun would be more efficient, and less hazardous to the snake hunter.

These things seem like they will move north into GA, AL and might really like Louisiana.

quote:

---

In parts of its native range, the Burmese Python actually encounters quite cool winters, and is known to hibernate. In fact, captives rarely breed unless stimulated by a cooling-off period. Florida’s unusually cold weather will likely not cause many mortalities, but, as illustrated above, may render the snakes more vulnerable to people and predators.

---

https://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatreptileblog/2010/02/01/cold-snap-in-florida-affects-introduced-i-e-burmese-pythons-and-native-herps/

Will they eat chicken breasts? When we got our farm we found place along a creek that had hundreds of treble hooks using steel braided cable, hanging from tree limbs. The ground was white with coyote and hog bones. Previous owner would hang chicken on them and when the animal ate the chicken the hook would get stuck in the mouth or throat. He would check his line every day and shoot the hanging animals.

He was also known for soaking sponges in bacon grease and leaving out for coyotes.

When I first saw it I thought it was something out of a Steven King novel.

Brutal.

Double post

quote:

---

Will they eat chicken breasts? When we got our farm we found place along a creek that had hundreds of treble hooks using steel braided cable, hanging from tree limbs. The ground was white with coyote and hog bones. Previous owner would hang chicken on them and when the animal ate the chicken the hook would get stuck in the mouth or throat. He would check his line every day and shoot the hanging animals.

---

That would work for those brown tree snakes in Guam, but as I understand it, Pythons hunt live prey. They evidently have acute sense of infrared. A researcher did some testing with balloons filed with warm water and the pythons would strike them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms3OXoI3C9A

Florida has an annual hunt if I remember correctly. Maybe the event should take place several times a year.

quote:

---

Will they eat chicken breasts? When we got our farm we found place along a creek that had hundreds of treble hooks using steel braided cable, hanging from tree limbs. The ground was white with coyote and hog bones. Previous owner would hang chicken on them and when the animal ate the chicken the hook would get stuck in the mouth or throat. He would check his line every day and shoot the hanging animals.

---

I passed this along to the Guam brown tree snake research station. That would be highly effective on the brown snake plague they suffer. Those things are predators and scavengers and will eat most anything. That would be ideal for hanging in trees.

Guam's current program drops thousands of mouse parts stuffed with Tylenol attached to a note card and string. The idea is to drop them from a helicopter so they will get stuck up in the tree branches where the tree snakes will feed on them. A string of baited hooks hanging from trees would seem to be much more cost effective and practical.

quote:

---

You get that map is showing120ish+ miles south of Orlando, at its closest, right?

---

That's about 20 years of the velocity of the python's spread. Do you think they are going to just stop multiplying and spreading?

Then there is this.