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Anaconda captured at Osceola County fish camp
Mounted-patrol training turns into snake handling

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/osceola/os-anaconda-found-in-osceola-20100113,0,2987053.story

A 12-foot green anaconda was captured this morning by Osceola County deputy sheriffs at the East Lake Fish Camp in northern Osceola County.

The reptile is the first of its kind to be caught in the wild in Florida, an official with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

It was spotted and captured by members of the sheriff's mounted patrol unit, which trains at the public park.

Toni Englert, who keeps horses at the park's stable, witnessed the capture.

"The officers called me over and said 'Toni, I think we know what happened to the ducks,' " Englert said.

Englert, who often exercises her horses at the same time the deputies train, had pointed out to them that the park's ducks and geese — including a prizewinning goose — had been disappearing in the past few months. She said she assumed an alligator was feasting on the waterfowl.

"We would only find feathers all over the place," she said.

Englert said the snake was discovered in a drain pipe leading to a pond, which is probably where it eluded discovery — until the recent cold weather made him sluggish.

"I looked and saw the snake, curled up inside the pipe," Englert said. "It was barely moving."

The snake was taken to Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud.

Wildlife officer Lt. Rick Brown thinks it's the first time an anaconda has been caught in the wild in the state. Green anacondas are the largest snakes on record and can grow to be 30 feet long. The nonpoisonous constrictors are natives of the Amazon region.

"They are in the same category of concern as the Burmese pythons," Brown said. "Someone purchased this at a time it was no bigger than a couple of fingers and when it got big, released it."

Until early 2008, pet shops in Florida carried exotic reptiles that could be purchased by anyone. The rules were tightened because the foreign species, which were being dumped in the wild by their owners, became a serious menace to the state's flora and fauna.

A special permit is now required to own the reptiles.

The question now is, Brown said, where the anaconda came from and how many more were released in the wild.

They discredit themselves when they pretend to know the snakes history. I like how they do it themselves, it saves scientists the trouble
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steve

The history on that anaconda is complete hype and fabrication. I looked up the weather data for northern Osceola County. Daytime highs over the three coolest winter months average in the low 70’s, and nighttime lows over that same period average in the upper 40’s. That green would never be able to survive though the winter at those temps and nowhere near that far north in Florida. It is way to cool for that snake to have any interest this time of year in feeding, so the duck and goose story is false as well. It appears to be fairly cool in the photo going by the jackets, and the greens head looks pretty limp. My guess is that it was released within a few days or weeks of being captured. Pretty sad.

Kelly

About how cold it has been here the last week and a half. I posted a good post on the burm forum on the temps in the area. I live 40 miles north of Orlando and Kissimme is about 15 miles South of Orlando (basically the southern part OF Orlando.) You should check out that post as well as some of tom Crutchfield's on the subject of temps here last week. Quite honestly having worked with Anacondas in the past They could withstand the average winter weather we have on the South end of the Orlando area (Yellows would fare much better but greens could handle MOST of the average weather.) That said is about the AVERAGE winter weather every year we have a few severe cold fronts (for this region) that knock the temps down cold enough to whack green anacondas if it didn't get that cold we'd probably have quite a few adult iguanas running around the Orlando area which we really don't have. The last 2 years though we have had some colder than average cold fronts come in that lasted longer than normal as well which is a factor in killing of things that exist here marginally (I am a landscaper by trade and considering the presence of tropical and sub-tropical flora in local landscapes I have a pretty good working knowledge of what cold fronts do here.) The 2 (3? 4? I lost track) cold fronts that came through here last week were just over the top for this region. There is no way that snake could have survived outside here.

A snake could survive in the Sewer/ Drainage system... temperatures dont drop below freezing underground... Now does that mean that I believe this story... it seems like this was planted... after all with this weather... do you really thing this anaconda would be out and about feeding in the subfreezing weather... I think not.... Its sad.... but safe to say the other team is playing dirty.. they no media attention gets results
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Marc Duhon
Lafayette, Louisiana
SURINAMBOAS.COM
kaiyudsai@SURINAMBOAS.COM

"We would only find feathers all over the place," she said.

Any large snake would not leave feathers all over the place, but a gator, raccoon, or fox would.

To be honest, Florida always had trouble controlling their ecossystem threats (and even establish precise definitions of what such thing is). And now, once again, like a bunch of scared elephants, they stampede on a rush! with sudden rules that may cause much more damage than good; at least to the people who are not guilty at all and simply like to keep animals.
First of all, biology101, the balance of a certain natural grounding doesn't become threatened by the mere introduction of a new preadator. That only happens when he arrives to predate on entirely new species there. That's not the case. Gators eat the same a burm or anaconda does (and even more) and they have always been there. There were too many gators in the 30's, so it became permitted (and promoted) to shoot them. As a result, the gator population decreased so much that they were declared untouchable again by mid 70's. Today, there a lot of gators around again.. i wonder what they plan on doing this time?
Second, a meat eater can never become a true plague. Nature limits how much the population can grow (if numbers increase too much, most will starve and die). A red alert like the one they are implying would only make sense with species that wipe out vegetation. Those are the real possible problems because they are a threat to the very foundations of natural equilibrium.
What they are doing so far, is causing alarm and getting more and more people to dislike them.