Reptile & Amphibian Forums

"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has announced the opportunity for hunters to access state-managed lands around the Everglades in order to capture and remove reptiles of concern.

The specially created season will take place March 8 to April 17, after the close of small game season in the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor, Holey Land, and Rotenberger wildlife management areas.

Anyone with a hunting license and a $26 management area permit can take part in the hunt. Snakes on the target list include Burmese pythons, the Indian python, northern and south African rock pythons, reticulated pythons, scrub pythons, green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards."

Noticed anything odd? Supposedly this hunt is to control the python population in the Everglades...however, if that is the case then why is there a HUNTING SEASON? It seems to me that in this case there should be no seasonal hunting, but the hunting effort should be all year round. From March to April? and then what? give them a break to breed, recoup and increase their numbers for next year hunting season?

It looks like the state of Florida wants to keep pythons as a source of revenue in hunting licenses and management area fees...
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Neutiquam erro. Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.

If they spent as much cash as they are wasting on all the hearings, meeting and general nonsensical jibber-jabber and just put a bounty on the pelt of every unwanted snake and monitor out there in the Everglades, the problem would be solved. Funny how man can kill off the Dodo, Passenger Pigeon, whales, otters, wood rats, spotted owls, hawks, mud puppies, every kind of fish, coral and invertebrate that the ocean can hold, but a few thousand Burms in the swamp and we got our backs against the wall…? Come on people.

Sounds like it to me..the glades are big so there should be an open season all year. How do they plan on hunting them??
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RIVERSIDE REPTILE BREEDERS

For what I read, the snakes have to be killed before leaving the park. apparently any kind of weapons can be used, be it fire arms or machetes. Hunters get to keep the skins and meat.
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Neutiquam erro. Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.

Anybody see the 3-hour scare fest on Animal Planet last night? 2-hour show about "Deadly Aliens" (with Senator Bill Nelson as the expert authority on invasive species)invading Florida and then taking over the entire country to invade YOUR backyard and eat you, your kids and your pets.

Then "Fatal Attractions" that made reptile keepers look like deranged shut-ins that can't control their compulsion to keep deadly monsters in YOUR neighborhood.

First of all, I remember when that channel used to present FACTS about animals. But also, it seems blatantly obvious to me that these groups and the government are funding these shows in order to get their ridiculous legislation passed...happens ALL the time.

I also noticed that they kept playing commercials in between segments for an upcoming show about a guy who studies bears in North America. Gets right up next to them by "building trust" with sweet, comforting music for a soundtrack...I guess it's OK that the animal can disembowel you in 2 seconds, eat your face and not think twice about it as long as it's cute and furry?...Awwww, Winnie the Pooh.

There were a few mentions to feral cats (not by that name if i remember correctly) during the show, but I don't remember ever being mentioned that feral cats don't belong in this ecosystem, that they are very successful predators of all kinds of mammals, birds and reptiles, and that they carry all kind of diseases. I am pretty sure that feral cats are the main cause of the disappearance of the wood rats in the keys, but only the pythons get mentioned in that regard.

I guess Senator Nelson is not as worried with the destruction that feral cats cause to the Florida ecosystemt as he is with the "python invasion". How come feral cats weren't considered among the "Killer Aliens"?

Hmmmm wonder why. Is there a powerful feral cat lobby out there? Oh, wait, many people feed feral cats and thus contribute to their expansion all over the state (and the country I must say). Those people vote and they wouldn't like Senator Nelson staging a campaign against the "cute" kitties...
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Neutiquam erro. Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt.

Don't forget the invasive African Pouched rat...that's like the size of a possum.
They're all over Florida now due to someone releasing SIX of them when the monkey pox epidemic hit.
I'm sure they're wiping the floor with native rodents.
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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)

>>Anybody see the 3-hour scare fest on Animal Planet last night? 2-hour show about "Deadly Aliens" (with Senator Bill Nelson as the expert authority on invasive species)invading Florida and then taking over the entire country to invade YOUR backyard and eat you, your kids and your pets.
>>
>>Then "Fatal Attractions" that made reptile keepers look like deranged shut-ins that can't control their compulsion to keep deadly monsters in YOUR neighborhood.
>>
>>First of all, I remember when that channel used to present FACTS about animals. But also, it seems blatantly obvious to me that these groups and the government are funding these shows in order to get their ridiculous legislation passed...happens ALL the time.
>>
>>I also noticed that they kept playing commercials in between segments for an upcoming show about a guy who studies bears in North America. Gets right up next to them by "building trust" with sweet, comforting music for a soundtrack...I guess it's OK that the animal can disembowel you in 2 seconds, eat your face and not think twice about it as long as it's cute and furry?...Awwww, Winnie the Pooh.

I saw that garbage...Did you catch the part where they referred to reptiles(in general)as dangerous?They made no distinction otherwise...We know they aren't THAT ignorant,so the biased viewpoint is obviously a product of hush money.

This sort of biased media only proves that there is no such thing as a free country so long as there is money and large masses of ignorant people that will believe anything on television..It's the same as it ever was(,with writings and paintings),but with the newer electronic mediums....blah
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Charles Glaspie
picasaweb.google.com/coldthumb

Yeah, I did notice that comment.

And also the woman whom her and her dog were "attacked" by the wild Nile Monitor (that according to the trapper can do everything but fly) saying if they ban reptiles, she hopes anyone caught with one from the black market is given a shot to be put to sleep and then put in a freezer...it's all just fascinating.

The guy from Newark, DE that got eaten by his monitors...that happened 5 miles down the road from my house. When it happened, I actually contacted the local news to adopt one of them because they asked for people to volunteer to take them. But I could have only taken one and they found someone to take all 7.

That one was also interesting the way they explained him dying because he was bitten a few days prior and the lizards crept around waiting for him to die from infection so they could eat him...we ARE definitely in trouble. Ignorance and stupidity are a hell of a force to reckon with.

They'll have to pry 'em from my cold, dead hands though...

I agree. See, my two hobbies are snakes and guns, so it's going to be a bad day for anyone coming to take my snakes...
or my guns.
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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)

...and how about the part where the "experienced snake trapper"( at least 6' tall and over 200 pounds) was catching a 8 foot burmese and the narrator saying if he makes one wrong move it will prove to be deadly as the snake will stike him and crush him. Give me a break yeah if he bit him it wouldnt feel good but thats about all it could have done to that guy.

I would at first think it would be wise to have an open season for them, to hunt them year round. But I would guess that they wouldn't due to the importance of all the other wildlife there.

Not everyone has the same consideration when we walk into the woods with our shot guns. I have even seen some pretty pointless "Target Practiced" subjects like buzzards that someone shot off a carcass. There were 5 or 6 of them just laying there besides the carrion.

Point being, everglades are a breeding ground for some species that aren't far from being endangered. By providing a year round hunt, I would think, could have its disadvantages as certain species could fall victim to unnecessary slaughter. A lot of things are starting to nest or nesting by April 17th. Maybe that’s why they want hunters out.

This season that is open, would this be breeding season for most of these snakes based on Florida weather? If it is, i would think that its the better season to choose, when many of the males are in the vicinity of the females, especially for the burms.

Severa

on the number of Burms taken so far??

Brent