Surge of giant snakes in Everglades prompts call for ban

[babylonsister]

Bill targeting invasive species riles pet owners, industry

By LESLEY CLARK AND CURTIS MORGAN
McClatchy Newspapers


MIAMI -- Water managers dispatched two experts to Washington, D.C., recently to back a controversial congressional bill targeting an Everglades problem that seems to get bigger every year.

The latest, largest evidence emerged last week: A Burmese python stretching 161/2 feet, the longest yet of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the exotic constrictors the South Florida Water Management District has pulled off its lands and levees in the past few years.

More sobering: The female, found on the L-67 levee south of Tamiami Trail, was pregnant, carrying a clutch of 59 eggs - more proof the giant snakes are breeding in the wild.

"These are not little snakes running around. These are massive, dangerous animals," said district spokesman Randy Smith.

The surge of invasive serpents is the prime reason the district, which oversees 2.2 million acres of state-owned marshlands, has thrown its support behind a House bill that could end the import and breeding not just of pythons, but a whole host of tropical invaders that have settled in South Florida.

more...

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/environment/story/1058891.html

[madmax]

1. Interesting and reminds me

"These are not little snakes running around. These are massive, dangerous animals...".

Of Washington, DC!

[kestrel91316]

2. Keeping pet wildlife is a privilege, not a right. Humans in Fl and many other places have

collectively lost that right, IMHO. Ban them. Then remove them from the environment by whatever means necessary before they kill somebody or start reproducing out there.

[BeFree]

3. Heh

Too late. There were some weirdos a long time ago claiming that what has happened was gonna happen, but everybody just thought they were weird, so they let the profiteers make their profits from bringing in and selling to anybody these animals.

It's too late now, we're just gonna have to adapt to having big ass snakes roaming the country.

[sakabatou]

4. I just hate those mf-ing snakes...

on a plane.

[Dappleganger]

5. Don't worry, the repukes in this state will take care of them

when they begin to invade their new McMansions in the Everglades in the next few years.

[Cyrano]

15. Actually, in the snakes vs pukes scenario, I'd root for the snakes

On a more serious note, snakes can never do more damage to the Everglades than Jeb Bush and the sugar companies have done. And those snakes can never do more damage to this country than the Republicans have done and will go on doing if they ever regain power.

[cherokeeprogressive]

6. Ask the residents of Guam what they think of invasive species re snakes.

Or go to Guam and try to listen for wild birdsongs...

[babylonsister]

8. Nope.

I lived there for a year, saw one dead snake in the road, but did see/hear birds (but no seagulls, oddly). Snakes may have been a problem years ago, but in 1995, not so much.

That's been really blown out of proportion, but the people who ran the infrastructure there blamed every conceivable problem on snakes, including the daily power outages. Had nothing to do with them running salt water through their systems. Oh, and parts were always 'on the boat'.

Don't get me started! :D

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. LOL I shant get you started.

I've never been, but I know people who were stationed there in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. They always told the same story about the bird loss.

Also, this from UW last year:

Brown tree snake could mean Guam will lose more than its birds

Birds typically make up a small part of the life of a forest, but they are important for pollination, spreading seeds around the forest and controlling insects that feed on plants. Guam, an island 30 miles long and 5 to 15 miles wide about 3,800 miles west of Hawaii, lost most of its native birds after the brown tree snake was introduced by accident from the Admiralty Islands following World War II. The snake has few predators on Guam, so its population density is quite high -- estimated at more than 3,000 per square mile -- and some individuals there grow to an unusual size of 10 feet long.

Before introduction of the brown tree snake, Guam had 12 species of native forest birds. Today 10 of those are extinct on Guam, and the other two species have fewer than 200 individuals. Though Guam has some non-native bird populations, few other birds moved in when native species died out, and none of them live in the forest. That leaves few birds to consume tree seeds and then drop them away from the trees.

That could have two possible negative impacts on the native forests, Rogers said. First, some plant species need birds to handle their seeds to ensure effective germination. In addition, seed predators and fungi that kill seeds are often found in high density directly beneath a parent tree, so the trees rely on birds to disperse seeds beyond the range of those negative effects. If native birds performed those functions on Guam, tree populations could suffer from the loss of birds. It appears 60 percent to 70 percent of tree species in the native forests are dispersed, at least in part, by birds, she said.

More at link: http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleid=43191

[Blue_Tires]

7. foreign plant and animal invaders exact a huge environmental toll

and that's just from the ones that get here by accident...the people who bring the exotic stuff here intentionally and let it out in the wild need to grow a fucking brain...or just be sent to the swamp to live with their new 'friends'

[Ghost in the Machine]

9. Photo in the News: Python Bursts After Eating Gator

A huge Burmese python in Florida may have died while eating an alligator. ... Photo: A python with an alligator protruding from its midsection ...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1006_051006_pythoneatsgator.html

[babylonsister]

10. Holy moly!

:scared: Unreal!

[Ghost in the Machine]

16. The one in your OP was bigger than this one..

If I remember correctly, the one in my link is an 11 to 12 footer, and the gator was a 6 footer...


Imagine the snake that could eat *this* gator!

[WeDidIt]

11. Though I admit to being an opdiaphile

I must support the banning of these creatures. IT's just too damagin to the environment to alow this shit to continue and people have proven themselves irresponsible when it comes to ownership of these snakes.

[hatrack]

12. It's a bit late, don't you think?

I mean, they're out there and reproducing, so it's pretty much game over at this point . . .

[Fla_Democrat]

18. Na, easy-peasy

Start a rumor they taste good (know rattlesnake does, sure they do too) and open a season on them. :evilgrin:

Two years..... they will be on the threatened species list.

[slampoet]

14. The Circus Industry and the Elderly collide in Florida.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. I think the importation of those snakes into Florida should have been halted

when Jeb and Charlie Christ first entered the state. :yoiks: