Reptile & Amphibian Forums

..... with propaganda like this the herp hobby is going to need it. Front and center on Yahoo!
http://news.yahoo.com/pythons-apparently-wiping-everglades-mammals-201541112.html

The article is just the tip of the iceberg, look at the comments and realize this is how the majority of people feel about snakes including pretty colored BPs.

The general public is AGAINST the hobby, so getting support and trying to raise awareness among the sheeple may be more harmful in the long run.

The herp hobby will NEVER be able to raise the cash to elevate USARK to the level of lobbying power of HSUS or PETA. Not enough people in the entire hobby to compete on a spend VS. spend basis against those two behemoths alone nevermind the various ancillary animal nut groups.

Has USARK rasied the idea of boycotting corporate and celebrity donors to organizations like the HSUS? The info on donors and supporters should be easy to find as a so called non profit they have to report donations. Herpers may not be a huge group with in the mainstream, however in a tight economy every dollar counts and this may be a headache that makes the money suppliers to HSUS revaluate their support.

Instead of massive letter writing campaigns that get ignored from politicians, how about massive letter writing campaigns directed at corporations, movie-tv-music production and disribution companies as well as individual groups-actors-artists that support HSUS etc. Vote with your wallet and stop providing the very cash flow that is being used to destroy the herp hobby. Has this been an idea already addressed by USARK?

The only way to compete with the likes of HSUS and others is to reduce their operating budgets and their ability to peddle monetary influence on politicians. With the lack of support from the general public, and if the comments in the article I posted are any indication.... there are a lot of haters out there, then this may be a way to "amplify" the voice of herpers.

Again corporate margins are tighter than ever and the entertainment industry is having issues as well. A boycott of any size would get their attention and possibly have them reavaluate their donations to such groups.

If you just try to raise money to compete on a lobbying level..... well good luck with that!

np
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Best regards,
AlanColesReptiles

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A burgeoning population of huge pythons - many of them pets that were turned loose by their owners when they got too big - appears to be wiping out large numbers of raccoons, opossums, bobcats and other mammals in the Everglades, a study says.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that sightings of medium-size mammals are down dramatically - as much as 99 percent, in some cases - in areas where pythons and other large, non-native constrictor snakes are known to be lurking.

Scientists fear the pythons could disrupt the food chain and upset the Everglades' environmental balance in ways difficult to predict.

"The effects of declining mammal populations on the overall Everglades ecosystem, which extends well beyond the national park boundaries, are likely profound," said John Willson, a research scientist at Virginia Tech University and co-author of the study.

Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia, are believed to be living in the Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.

Burmese pythons can grow to be 26 feet long and more than 200 pounds, and they have been known to swallow animals as large as alligators. They and other constrictor snakes kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it.

The National Park Service has counted 1,825 Burmese pythons that have been caught in and around Everglades National Park since 2000. Among the largest so far was a 156-pound, 16.4-foot one captured earlier this month.

For the study, researchers drove 39,000 miles along Everglades-area roads from 2003 through 2011, counting wildlife spotted along the way and comparing the results with surveys conducted on the same routes in 1996 and 1997.

The researchers found staggering declines in animal sightings: a drop of 99.3 percent among raccoons, 98.9 percent for opossums, 94.1 percent for white-tailed deer and 87.5 percent for bobcats. Along roads where python populations are believed to be smaller, declines were lower but still notable.

Rabbits and foxes, which were commonly spotted in 1996 and 1997, were not seen at all in the later counts. Researchers noted slight increases in coyotes, Florida panthers, rodents and other mammals, but discounted that finding because so few were spotted overall.

"The magnitude of these declines underscores the apparent incredible density of pythons in Everglades National Park," said Michael Dorcas, a professor at Davidson College in North Carolina and lead author of the study.

Although scientists cannot definitively say the pythons are killing off the mammals, the snakes are the prime suspect. The increase in pythons coincides with the mammals' decrease, and the decline appears to grow in magnitude with the size of the snakes' population in an area. A single disease appears unlikely to be the cause since several species were affected.

The report says the effect on the overall ecosystem is hard to predict. Declines among bobcats and foxes, which eat rabbits, could be linked to pythons' feasting on rabbits. On the flip side, declines among raccoons, which eat eggs, may help some turtles, crocodiles and birds.

Scientists point with concern to what happened in Guam, where the invasive brown tree snake has killed off birds, bats and lizards that pollinated trees and flowers and dispersed seeds. That has led to declines in native trees, fish-eating birds and certain plants.

In 2010, Florida banned private ownership of Burmese pythons. Earlier this month, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a federal ban on the import of Burmese pythons and three other snakes.

Salazar said Monday that the study shows why such restrictions were needed.

"This study paints a stark picture of the real damage that Burmese pythons are causing to native wildlife and the Florida economy," he said.

Read more: http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/national/pythons-apparently-wiping-out-everglades-mammals#ixzz1l1zcCE30

"Salazar said Monday that the study shows why such restrictions were needed.

"This study paints a stark picture of the real damage that Burmese pythons are causing to native wildlife and the Florida economy," he said."

Are you kidding me? We can't say that it's the Burmese for sure but we can say for sure that it's the burmese that are causing the real damage to the native wildlife. But we can't be sure that we're sure. But it would make a good SNL skit...that's for sure.

And how about the Florida economy sucks because it's public officials are too busy chasing ghosts in the Everglades in order to get votes or their name on a bill. Maybe if they cared more about their actual residents instead of winning a dick measuring contest the economy here would be better. BTW...isn't the economy down everywhere?
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Matt Lerer
Ghi Reptiles

That is PATHETIC...SERIOUSLY!!!

Evidently the aliens have been visiting EARTH more often and taking the intelligent people away and replacing them with IDIOTS!

I am am rather confused how stuff like this gets published and they just guess or suppose it must be the "released pet snakes"

We are DOOMED!

Kevin
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"Satan™" is a registered trademark of NERD, Inc. Any copyright infringement is punishable by ETERNAL DAMNATION and some other terrible stuff.

NPR has been running bits about the pythons as well. Sadly, it is just more of the same incorrect or over-generalized information. NPR has let me down.
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25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I only caught the tail end of it, but I thought I heard a story on NPR this morning about the burms eating all of the Everglades mammals. They were interviewing one of the researchers, and I thought I heard him say that he was not in favor of the ban, but that a permit system should be implemented.

The bit I heard had the "Pet Industry Lawyer" saying that. Though honestly, a lot of everything else this "advocate" said was just as damaging. The researchers they interviewed were (as far as I listened) ubiquitously stating that mammal populations have plummeted, it is obvious that it is the fault of the Burmese pythons, and that listing them was crucial in stopping their spread to the entire lower third of the United States.

Needless to say, I was a tidge miffed to hear a radio station I had put so much faith to give accurate reporting cover the story in this way. My own fault. I should have realized they are still "the media".
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25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

Lawyer Marshall Meyers represents the pet industry and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council:
"They're species that are not in this country, that we do not want in this country, because if they came in through pet trade or through the zoos, they can cause a lot of environmental harm, and that's just a big black eye," he says.

The NPR article with audio of the broadcast:
www.npr.org/2012/01/31/146124073/pythons-blamed-for-everglades-disappearing-animals
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25 year old 0.1 from Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly, 2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband