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(Smh.com.au) Florida "Sightings of raccoons are down 99 per cent, opossums 98.9 per cent and white-tailed deer 94 per cent." Giant pythons have eaten the Everglades   (smh.com.au) divider line 71
More: Florida, Everglades, raccoons, Burmese pythons, beached whale, Everglades National Park, academic publication, Burmese, Wildlife Services  
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2620 clicks; posted to Geek » on 31 Jan 2012 at 3:12 PM   |  Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»   |    Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends! shirt it!



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2012-01-31 08:56:48 AM
Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.
 
2012-01-31 12:07:52 PM
dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it. All because a few douchebags bought them as pets and ditched them out there.
 
2012-01-31 12:18:25 PM
There only one way to deal with this problem.

cache.io9.com

/you gator-baiting biatch
 
2012-01-31 12:28:44 PM
It's not just the pythons. (new window)
 
2012-01-31 12:32:35 PM
dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Python are a little more difficult to track than deer. It's my understanding they are already trying something like that but it isn't having much effect.

I wonder if mongoose can live in the Everglades?
 
2012-01-31 01:01:38 PM
Lsherm: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Python are a little more difficult to track than deer. It's my understanding they are already trying something like that but it isn't having much effect.

I wonder if mongoose can live in the Everglades?


Your understanding is flawed.

Florida FWS has a program that actually mimics, to a large degree, their sport hunting regulations: You can kill the pythons, but only during normal hunting seasons, you must have an actual valid hunting license (which means you have to pay up front for the privilege), and they aren't paying any bounty. Plus, you need to provide a GPS reading of where you killed/captured it.

Those are pretty similar to regular sport hunting requirements, which are designed to maintain, or increase, game populations. There are only *TWO* minor differences:

1. You can sell the skin/meat of the animal in lieu of a bounty. Problem is, the meat is inedible due to high mercury levels, so that just leaves the skin as a potential source of revenue, and the market for that is limited.

2. There are no bag limits.

If they were serious about the problem, here is what they should do:

1. First and foremost, put an actual bounty on them. Something like $25 for a full grown adult, maybe $10 for an immature specimen, live or dead, should do it.

2. Don't limit it to normal hunting seasons.

3. Don't require a current, valid hunting license. If you are worried about safety, you can require them to have taken a hunter safety course, so the bounty can be payable upon proof of that (either the certificate from the safety course, or a current or expired hunting license should be OK).

4. Allow any and all safe means to take them, including traps.

You want to wipe them out, so you have to get down and dirty. Normal game regulations should not apply. Take advantage of the properties of market hunting to relatively quickly decimate a prey population.

As for tracking them, I'm betting that if you put a bounty on them, that would be enough incentive for Jimmy-Joe and Bubba to re-train their coon dogs to sniff out burmese pythons, or to train new dogs.
 
2012-01-31 01:07:52 PM
On January 23, the US Fish and Wildlife Service started the paperwork to ban the importation and interstate transportation of Burmese pythons, northern and southern African pythons and yellow anaconda

Only about 30 years too late.

A lot of folks down here in Florida started yelling about the seemingly uncontrolled pet market in nearly any exotic species people could get their hands on. This started long before the 80's, when folks imported things like Water Lilly's which promptly clogged up major water ways, the Brazilian Pepper Tree -- Florida Holly -- that spread like wildfire across the state (the berries are poison and the flowers attract masses of bees and wasps) even Piranha that got into some river systems.

By the 80's it was snakes and Iguana's. Idiots imported and kept some of the deadliest snakes to be found, including the Black Mamba. Pythons and Anaconda's were already starting to be found wandering residential neighborhoods as they escaped their cages. Iguana's get BIG! They started showing up all over the place.

By the end of the 60's, laws protected the alligators, so Floridian's had to face a population explosion of those nasty critters also.

Toss in Fire Ants and Killer Bees and Florida is an ecological disaster area.

I keep waiting for those enormous killer wasps of Japan to show up, because, certainly someone will decide to raise them for bragging rights and because they're so big, they look like plastic toys.
For decades folks have been trying to get Congress to initiate an exotic import ban similar to the UK and they've mainly ignored it.

We've already discovered how easy it is for developers to get around the Endangered Species Act, which forbids the building on land which is home to endangered animals. (The pain in the arse guy behind me bought two lots, stripped them clean and built himself a sprawling house and a place to park his RV. I know for a fact that the land had been home to a decades old Gopher Turtle nest, which is protected under State Law. He just plowed it under with impunity.)

The only way to get rid of the big snakes, is to find an economic use for them. Like with gators. We have farms now raising gators for their meat and leather. The market is booming. Make the snakes valuable enough and every Swamper will get out there in their air boats and flat bottomed skiffs and risk life and limb to hunt them down.

That's what drove the gators to near extinction, decades ago. The Swampers did a real good job of it but they don't risk their lives unless the pay is good.

I guess not much will come of the snake banning until too many folks actually get killed. That seems to be the way it works around here. No pre-emptive strike. You just wait until the 'acceptable death' count goes past it's limit.
 
2012-01-31 01:41:57 PM
Sybarite: There only one way to deal with this problem.

[cache.io9.com image 640x425]

/you gator-baiting biatch


The best part of that scene is when they fight their way into the lake, and emerge soaking wet (which is cool in and of itself), and Tiffany stops and says "Hm. I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around." My kids wondered why I spat Mountain Dew across the room.
 
2012-01-31 01:52:50 PM
dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

And turn it into a made for TV tv show. People will line up for miles to "get famous"
Because, face it, it's florida.
 
2012-01-31 02:12:45 PM
Mugato: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it. All because a few douchebags bought them as pets and ditched them out there.


What are they doing?
 
2012-01-31 02:17:05 PM
Mugato: They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it.

No they aren't. They aren't paying a bounty for them, so there is very little economic incentive to go after them.
 
2012-01-31 02:35:07 PM
vudukungfu: And turn it into a made for TV tv show. People will line up for miles to "get famous"
Because, face it, it's florida.


This week on Python Wars.....
 
2012-01-31 02:44:36 PM
dahmers love zombie: Sybarite: There only one way to deal with this problem.

[cache.io9.com image 640x425]

/you gator-baiting biatch

The best part of that scene is when they fight their way into the lake, and emerge soaking wet (which is cool in and of itself), and Tiffany stops and says "Hm. I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around." My kids wondered why I spat Mountain Dew across the room.


What movie is that from?

Also, you drink Mountain Dew?
 
2012-01-31 02:48:17 PM
pudding7: dahmers love zombie: Sybarite: There only one way to deal with this problem.

[cache.io9.com image 640x425]

/you gator-baiting biatch

The best part of that scene is when they fight their way into the lake, and emerge soaking wet (which is cool in and of itself), and Tiffany stops and says "Hm. I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around." My kids wondered why I spat Mountain Dew across the room.

What movie is that from?

Also, you drink Mountain Dew?



Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. I had a group of friends that got together to drink and watch a double-feature of that and Mega Piranha. Good times, good times.
 
2012-01-31 02:59:43 PM
Sybarite: pudding7: dahmers love zombie: Sybarite: There only one way to deal with this problem.

[cache.io9.com image 640x425]

/you gator-baiting biatch

The best part of that scene is when they fight their way into the lake, and emerge soaking wet (which is cool in and of itself), and Tiffany stops and says "Hm. I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around." My kids wondered why I spat Mountain Dew across the room.

What movie is that from?

Also, you drink Mountain Dew?


Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. I had a group of friends that got together to drink and watch a double-feature of that and Mega Piranha. Good times, good times.


Isn't that movie what the picture in the story is from?
 
2012-01-31 03:02:39 PM
Lsherm: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Python are a little more difficult to track than deer. It's my understanding they are already trying something like that but it isn't having much effect.

I wonder if mongoose can live in the Everglades?


But isn't that a bit short-sighted? What happens when we're overrun by lizards?

SKINNER
No problem. We simply unleash wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes. They'll wipe out the lizards.

LISA
But aren't the snakes even worse?

SKINNER
Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.

LISA
But then we're stuck with gorillas!

SKINNER
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
 
2012-01-31 03:15:43 PM
timujin: Mugato: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it. All because a few douchebags bought them as pets and ditched them out there.

What are they doing?


It. Although that might be the problem?
 
2012-01-31 03:18:32 PM
Feed 'em the nutria from New Orleans.
 
2012-01-31 03:39:10 PM
www.eccentric-cinema.com
 
2012-01-31 03:41:04 PM
dahmers love zombie: Sybarite: There only one way to deal with this problem.

[cache.io9.com image 640x425]

/you gator-baiting biatch

The best part of that scene is when they fight their way into the lake, and emerge soaking wet (which is cool in and of itself), and Tiffany stops and says "Hm. I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around." My kids wondered why I spat Mountain Dew across the room.


Is that Tiffany and Debby Gibson biatch-fighting? "Mega-Gator Versus Dyno-Shark" or some such crap?
 
2012-01-31 03:42:05 PM
24 inch pythons?

cdn.msg.com
 
2012-01-31 03:48:44 PM
Wow, deer populations off 94%? Can we have a few pythons here in New York? At least pythons don't run out into traffic and total cars every time they're horny.
 
2012-01-31 03:53:07 PM
dittybopper: Lsherm: dittybopper:
Florida FWS has a program that actually mimics, to a large degree, their sport hunting regulations: You can kill the pythons, but only during normal hunting seasons, you must have an actual valid hunting license (which means you have to pay up front for the privilege), and they aren't paying any bounty. Plus, you need to provide a GPS reading of where you killed/captured it.

Those are pretty similar to regular sport hunting requirements, which are designed to maintain, or increase, game populations. There are only *TWO* minor differences:

1. You can sell the skin/meat of the animal in lieu of a bounty. Problem is, the meat is inedible due to high mercury levels, so that just leaves the skin as a potential source of revenue, and the market for that is limited.

2. There are no bag limits.

If they were serious about the problem, here is what they should do:

1. First and foremost, put an actual bounty on them. Something like $25 for a full grown adult, maybe $10 for an immature specimen, live or dead, should do it.

2. Don't limit it to normal hunting seasons.

3. Don't require a current, valid hunting license. If you are worried about safety, you can require them to have taken a hunter safety course, so the bounty can be payable upon proof of that (either the certificate from the safety course, or a current or expired hunting license should be OK).

4. Allow any and all safe means to take them, including traps.

You want to wipe them out, so you have to get down and dirty. Normal game regulations should not apply. Take advantage of the properties of market hunting to relatively ...


Just out of curiousity, what would stop someone from breeding snakes and turning in all the babies for the bounty? I DRTA, but read a Yahoo article on the same topic earlier today that said some of these Pythons can lay 100 eggs/breeding season (with a normal/average amount being 54 eggs/season). If it is $10 for a juvenile, that would be $500-1000 easy money, and you would just have to keep tossing feeder crickets (or just say Fark Em and let em scrounge insects for free and kill half the brood) into a big tank in deplorable conditions since this hypothetical person would obviously have no moral objections to that.

I agree that the rules you listed above, being similar to existing hunting rules, don't go far enough, but a bounty system seems like it might be easy to rig unless it gets really complicated.
 
2012-01-31 03:55:21 PM
Actual Farking

SKINNER
Yes, but we're prepared for that. We've lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on snake meat.

LISA
But then we're stuck with gorillas!

SKINNER
No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.


Came here for this. Also, "Sightings of raccoons are down 99 per cent, opossums 98.9 per cent and white-tailed deer 94 per cent." could also mean that the population of rednecks is up :)
 
2012-01-31 04:01:22 PM
They've eliminated their own food supply. Problem solves itself?

/glad my name isn't Professor Dorcas
 
2012-01-31 04:10:57 PM
my_cats_breath_smells_like_cat_food: Just out of curiousity, what would stop someone from breeding snakes and turning in all the babies for the bounty? I DRTA, but read a Yahoo article on the same topic earlier today that said some of these Pythons can lay 100 eggs/breeding season (with a normal/average amount being 54 eggs/season). If it is $10 for a juvenile, that would be $500-1000 easy money, and you would just have to keep tossing feeder crickets (or just say Fark Em and let em scrounge insects for free and kill half the brood) into a big tank in deplorable conditions since this hypothetical person would obviously have no moral objections to that.

I agree that the rules you listed above, being similar to existing hunting rules, don't go far enough, but a bounty system seems like it might be easy to rig unless it gets really complicated.


OK, so set a minimum length for a bounty to be paid.

If you have to feed the snakes for a year or two before you can collect a relatively small bounty ($25), it ceases to be economically attractive.

Having said that, if you can train some dogs to sniff them out, and you find, say, 2 to 4 every time you go out, that's attractive economically. Making some pocket money while out killing an invasive species is just win-win all around.
 
2012-01-31 04:11:36 PM
my_cats_breath_smells_like_cat_food:

Just out of curiousity, what would stop someone from breeding snakes and turning in all the babies for the bounty? I DRTA, but read a Yahoo article on the same topic earlier today that said some of these Pythons can lay 100 eggs/breeding season (with a normal/average amount being 54 eggs/season). If it is $10 for a juvenile, that would be $500-1000 e ...


This is the most retarded thing....snakes are in general not insectivores they are carnivores. If you live in any state other than florida python babies can go from anywhere from $40 for a normal ball python to $150 for a normal columbian red tailed to somewhere around $5000-$10000 each for a select specimen like a pie-bald varieties.
 
2012-01-31 04:12:49 PM
Rik01: You just wait until the 'acceptable death' count goes past it's limit.

Ah, the Brannigan Gambit: sending waves of people at the enemy until they reach their pre-programmed kill limit and shut down.
 
2012-01-31 04:14:17 PM
Mugato: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it. All because a few douchebags bought them as pets and ditched them out there.


Part 2 of that solution should be: put some money into R&D to find new and cheap ways to make these creatures delicious. Show some southern boys an easy way to make this the new gator tail steak, declare open season, and you'll see burms disappear in record numbers.
 
2012-01-31 04:17:43 PM
mytmare,

When animals run out of food in one area, they tend to start moving out into other areas looking for food.

Can't wait for all the stories of Pythons showing up in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, ect. I live in Amelia Island (Very NE Florida) so I guess I have some time to retro fit my zombie fortification and entrapments.

/love my state. Not sure what is worse; the wildlife or the politicians.
 
2012-01-31 04:18:11 PM
wmoonfox: Mugato: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

They're already doing a lot more than that and they're not putting a dent in it. All because a few douchebags bought them as pets and ditched them out there.

Part 2 of that solution should be: put some money into R&D to find new and cheap ways to make these creatures delicious. Show some southern boys an easy way to make this the new gator tail steak, declare open season, and you'll see burms disappear in record numbers.


If you read the article, it mentions they tend to have too much mercury in their systems. If you make them delicious, it just makes them delicious plus deadly.
 
2012-01-31 04:19:36 PM
Dog Welder: If you read the article, it mentions they tend to have too much mercury in their systems. If you make them delicious, it just makes them delicious plus deadly.

It's Florida... I see no problem with this.
 
2012-01-31 04:21:00 PM
Sightings of skunk apes are down, like 99.9%
 
2012-01-31 04:26:26 PM
It's a good sign when NPR breaks a news story before FARK.

/On the radio yesterday
 
2012-01-31 04:43:49 PM
Dog Welder: If you read the article, it mentions they tend to have too much mercury in their systems. If you make them delicious, it just makes them delicious plus deadly.

Oh like you'd be able to tell the effects of fetal mercury damage from being from Florida.
 
2012-01-31 04:47:00 PM
my_cats_breath_smells_like_cat_food: Just out of curiousity, what would stop someone from breeding snakes and turning in all the babies for the bounty?

That's called fraud.
 
2012-01-31 04:50:50 PM
Dog Welder: Part 2 of that solution should be: put some money into R&D to find new and cheap ways to make these creatures delicious. Show some southern boys an easy way to make this the new gator tail steak, declare open season, and you'll see burms disappear in record numbers.

If you read the article, it mentions they tend to have too much mercury in their systems. If you make them delicious, it just makes them delicious plus deadly.


How's this for a plan B: turn in a snake, and your reward is its skin, ready to be used for new boots, jackets, or what have you?
 
2012-01-31 04:51:18 PM
This sounds like it will take the combined efforts of both Ice Cube *and* Samuel L. Jackson to get resolved...
 
2012-01-31 04:52:21 PM
How about a new reality show starring the white trash in FL? "Python Hunter"
 
2012-01-31 04:53:13 PM
dittybopper: 3. Don't require a current, valid hunting license. If you are worried about safety, you can require them to have taken a hunter safety course, so the bounty can be payable upon proof of that (either the certificate from the safety course, or a current or expired hunting license should be OK).

You really have to pick the lesser of two evils for this one, but you drastically improve the likelihood of poaching other game if you go with this point. Requiring a license at least gives you some safeguard that the guy running around shooting at random crap in the glades is actually who he says he is and going for snakes.
 
2012-01-31 04:53:56 PM
dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each Burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Right now, I don't think there's not enough money in the state budget to cover that many snakes.
 
2012-01-31 05:21:22 PM
Coelacanth: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each Burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Right now, I don't think there's not enough money in the state budget to cover that many snakes.


So... we do a charity snake hunting event to raise the funds for the bounty. I bet announcing a cap to the total bounties would also make it improbable for someone to rig the game because there wouldn't be time.

Oh, and place a $500 bounty on pregnant females that haven't laid. Or are these live birth snakes?
 
2012-01-31 05:25:10 PM
now they have 4 foot Tegu's
images.northrup.org
 
2012-01-31 05:26:14 PM
wildcardjack: Coelacanth: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each Burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

Right now, I don't think there's not enough money in the state budget to cover that many snakes.

So... we do a charity snake hunting event to raise the funds for the bounty. I bet announcing a cap to the total bounties would also make it improbable for someone to rig the game because there wouldn't be time.

Oh, and place a $500 bounty on pregnant females that haven't laid. Or are these live birth snakes?


Naaaa - get one of the cable channels to turn it into another of their stupid SWAMP PEOPLE type programs. Let the cable company foot the bill for the bounty, have them film selected individuals doing the hunting while the rest of the hunters go out and kill snakes.
 
2012-01-31 05:30:47 PM
dittybopper: Having said that, if you can train some dogs to sniff them out, and you find, say, 2 to 4 every time you go out, that's attractive economically. Making some pocket money while out killing an invasive species is just win-win all around.

I don't know if the dog would think it's a win-win.

ALSO, FTFA:

The pythons aren't a danger to humans..."Last October, we found a 15-foot snake with an 80-pound doe inside it,''

[Inigo Montoya.jpg]
 
2012-01-31 05:37:12 PM
no talent ass clown: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

[cmsimg.detnews.com image 640x467]

fark that noise. Seriously.


Lot of missing children in Florida lately?
 
2012-01-31 05:44:26 PM
ecx.images-amazon.com

vudukungfu: dittybopper: Want to solve the problem? Put up a $25 bounty on each burmese python (live or dead) turned into Florida Fish and Game. Problem solved.

And turn it into a made for TV tv show. People will line up for miles to "get famous"
Because, face it, it's florida.


Like this?
 
2012-01-31 05:48:40 PM
Once they have eaten all the game, they will just die out. That's the beauty of it.
 
2012-01-31 05:49:03 PM
Bufo marinus laughs at your desperate cracker "final solutions"
 
2012-01-31 05:58:18 PM
KarmicDisaster: Once they have eaten all the game, they will just die out. That's the beauty of it.

Not quite, there are enough Yankees invading inland to feed the snakes for years.
 
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