Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ryan Potts Phd came for a visit and he and I made a huge effort to check out the Burmese Python situation first hand. I was dead wrong about the FREEZE decimating the population. We found one fresh roadkill 8-9' long and a heathy 8' we caught live.Aditionally we did find a HUGE dead 15-17' snake coiled up dead in a patch of sunlight [bones only]. The fact we found 2 live ones indicates to me a fair number escaped unscathed from the cold..

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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom, just because they're not dead now, doesn't mean they won't be in a month! R.I. can be a drawn out process! I would tend to think you might be finding more "DOR" in the future, as they'll be trying to warm up on the pavement!

I'm guessing you may be right and I'll continue to report what I see here. I know some might not want to hear what I posted but it is the truth. We can not fight intellegently unless we have the facts..I have pics of the bones but on a cell phone and I'm trying to figure out how to post them here. It was really creepy to find a huge pile of bones coiled up in a patch of sun. It was like it coiled up in the sun and couldn't get back to shelter and froze to death....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

OR, the ones that do survive will go on to breed and produce offspring that can tolerate to survive such extreme weather! genetic evolution in fast forward mode! Not, lets hope they do get wiped out by RI...

Nah. My guess is the ones that survived where the smart ones that were in basements wrapped around hot water heaters etc.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

THIS ONE IS HUGE AND LOOKS LIKE IT FROZE TO ME....

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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

thanks for posting pics. That must have been freaky to walk up on.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

One of my friends lives near the Glades... He said he went hunting for Burms during the cold spell. He said the air was 30, the foliage was 50, and the Burm he found curled up and sunning himself was at 70. Interesting...

If it's completely skeletonized like that, it's been dead longer then a week or two.

The everglades will eat you.. I can imagine all the different animals and insects picking at the dead animal. Then the fact that the snake was sunning so has probably been sitting there for weeks baking. I would think all those factors would help the decomposing process some.. Regardless all interesting information. Keep it coming.

It has been about 10 days since the last cold night and about 14 days since the 2 freezing nights. That's more than enough time to reduce a snake to a skeleton....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I agree. A a good size colony of fire ants (wow another invasive species that actually do harm people with their bites i.e. death. Which the government is doing nothing about.) can pick an animal clean in almost no time at all. Not to mention buzzards,coons, possums, feral hogs ( which is a heavily regulated animal when it comes to me and my buddies hunting them )and any other little creatures that feed on carrion. I won't rant to long on the politics but they work for all of us don't they? I wonder if their are any politicians that are herpers? Why don't we focus on voting all of them that support these bills out of office. Hopefully there will be some who actually will stand up for the common blue collar people. Sorry to rant again maybe Kingsnake can design a forum for this type of stuff that concerns us all ( or should ). Tom thank you for your time and efforts just not in this but for all that you have done over the years. I think this just has everyone on edge. And they are getting what they want by turning us against each other hoping to break us. Stand tall, stand together, stand strong.

Sorry to rant again maybe Kingsnake can design a forum for this type of stuff that concerns us all ( or should ). Tom thank you for your time and efforts just not in this but for all that you have done over the years. I think this just has everyone on edge. And they are getting what they want by turning us against each other hoping to break us. Stand tall, stand together, stand strong.

We do have a forum for the legal banter. It is our herp law and cities forum.
Herp law and Cities forum

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Cindy Steinle
PHFaust
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Ah-ha. Thanks.

Especially with insects and rodents going to town on it.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

Scavengers would scatter the bones etc all over not leave it in a nice coil out in the open. So fire ants may have done the bulk of the flesh stripping on that snake.

As for Burms surviving the cold snap I am not really that surprised. One thing the Everglades seems to have alot of, is water and damp vegetation. Decomposing vegetation produces alot of heat...Mud too is good at holding heat in. I am sure many snakes and the native crocodiles/alligators dug in deep to wait out the cold.

Burmese pythons are probably pretty good at finding warm places to go considering they are equipped with heat pits which I am sure they use for more than just tracking prey but to find areas of coolness or warmth to fit the snake's needs for thermuregulation.
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PHLdyPayne