Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't have cable, so miss all the MonsterQuest and Discovery references, but on PBS last night they had the Burmese invasion. At one point it purportedly looks as if a scene is unfolding in the wild, where a kingsnake attacks a baby Burmese. The king lets go of the Burmese for seemingly no discernible reason.

However, unless the filmmakers happened to stumble across a mosaic pattern morph of the FLA king, a blotched kingsnake was used for the scene. If so, is that what one would call set up? And if that scene is set up, how many others were/are?

I watched it.. All in all it was informative for the average person.. The only part I didnt like was the statement that at 2 years old a burm can be 11-12ft long(which is true if heavily fed, def not an average) and can weight nearly 200lbs. Show me a 2 year old animal weighting 200lbs. And while that said that they were showing a 16-17ft tiger retic. Other than that it really wasnt one sided.

Compared to any of the other programs, this one was fantastic-very little sensationalism, and actually blamed the burms primarily on Hurricane Andrew. Very interesting and mostly factual program-the rest of the media could take a lesson!
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Brad Chambers
WWW.HCU-TX.ORG

Breeder of:
Green Tree Pythons
Jungle Carpet Pythons
Pastel, Pinstripe, FIRE, Piebald, Clown, Lavender Albino, Leucistic, and Spider Ball Pythons
Striped Colombian Boa Constrictors
Kenyan, Rufescens, and Conicus Sand Boas
Red Phase Western Hognose Snakes
Spider Western Hognose Snakes
Albino Western Hognose Snakes
Locality Trans-Pecos Mexican Hognose Snakes
Southern Hognose Snakes
Eastern Hognose Snakes
Tricolor Hognose Snakes
Hypo Checkered Garter Snakes
Eastern Blackneck Garter Snakes
Stillwater Hypo Bullsnakes
Patternless Bullsnakes
S. GA Eastern Kingsnakes
Locality Desert Kingsnakes
Albino Desert Kingsnakes
Hypo Desert Kingsnakes
Mexican Black Kingsnakes
Desert Phase, Striped Desert, Newport, and Coastal California Kingsnakes
Locality Mexican Milksnakes
Spotted Mexican Milksnakes
Tangerine Mexican Milksnakes
Locality Alterna
Abbott Okeetee Cornsnakes
Mexican Baird's Ratsnakes
Cape Housesnakes
Tangerine Albino African Fat -Tailed Geckos
Locality Spotted Turtles

I agree, this was my only big heart burn with the show, otherwise it wasn't bad. My wife was even interested in it.

You are correct and pretty much ALL of them were set up as with every nature show out there...None of them are stmbled upon in nature...
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Yea I think most of that was set up, including the captured male Burms.
I was thinking it was old, done a few years ago. There was no mention of Afrocks or any other big snakes.
The Nile Monitor was cool.
I really liked the idea of the Pet Amnesty thing. Don't want you exotic, bring it to the fair, no questions....for the most part. That program should be promoted more.
BTW, What do they do with most big snakes caught? Killed I'm sure.

That was filmed last year here. Sean and I set up all those shots except for the ENP stuff. I also acted as an advisor on the editorial part with Nigel. In other words I worked with Nigel and gave him all the info and all I said was please just speak the truth. I worked a lot to get the feral cat stuff in there instead of always blaming Pythons. The Hurricane scene plus many more shots were filmed here at my farm. Sean Heflick did the underwater photography and both of us staged shot's etc on the first segment filmed in March. I did most of the animal wrangling in the part filmed last summer. I wanted a film that potrayed the truth and not fearmongering and Nigel did just that. We should thank Nigel for his honesty and for an excellent film in comparison to what's been shown to date....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, and there WAS one mention of the cats (I took into consideration that it was a show about pythons, not cats). I was just pointing out that the king was a blotched, and it struck me as set up. Any clue as to why it let go? And why not use a FLA king?

On a side note, was that a hypo raccoon? COOL looking!

Yes we could ONLY get wc Fl Kings and I couldnt get them to "track" the Burmese. Patty has a voracious feeding goini so I scent marked the ground with rodent smell and fur. We scent marked the Python and placed it under a plastic cup. The King picked the smell up and tracked it as a wild one would. When the snake got close we removed the cup and the Python was struck. Once the King realized it wasn't a rat he released it hence the miraculous aborted attack. I just wanted to demonstrate the many natural predators these Pythons have unlike what is being spoon fed to the media. That was my daughters raccoon and yes it's a hypo. Again it's hard to get a wild coon to eat a python on cue...LOL...THE MOST DIFFICULT SHOTS WERE THE NILE MONITOR SEQUENCES. That few minutes took two complete days to shoot. The Koi Pond deal was hard but the "croc egg" part was the most difficult of all. All nature shows for the most part are staged. Can you imagine getting all that info by walking around trying to find wildlife doing naturally what you want to film? Impossible...Even staging it you have to really understand reptile behaviour intimately to make it work and even then sometimes it doesn't work the first time. Nigel and his crew are experts on the film part. We all owe him thanks for at last doing a somewhat realistic portrayel without the drama....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Definite thanks to Nigel and you for the work--Nature's about the only thing I watch and I'm kinda sick of lions attacking zebras and shows about cold climate places. I can only imagine how difficult it is to not only get good footage, but have it look so good when finally produced. Awesome work.

Just like everything, staging can be used for good but can also be used to promote other agendas. Imagine a rat-scented baby doll used to demonstrate a python's predilection for human flesh?!

Yes, I agree and The NatGeo Python home attack sequence was a horrible example of just that. Snakes kept changing species from Burmese to Retics on that sequence. My single purpose was to disclaim the "the pythons have no predator" nonsense statement that even USFWS spouts out continually and because a Key Largo Wood Rat was found in a pythons belly that leads one to believe the pythons are the major cause of the rat's decline. They don't say it outright but when they talk about it you're led to believe the pythons are the culprits. When we discussed this whole project [started over 2 years ago] all I asked is that the truth be told which in fact for the most part he did. I've been in contact with Alex in the UK as Nigel is in China. He says that Nigel wrote the dialogue as well. It was refreshing to see the narrator giving useful info and not spewing forth fear and insinuations of impending doom regarding pythons.
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

One more thing was that we could NOT INJURE OR KILL any animal in the filming of the movie...thanks
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Tom, where did you get the shots of the gator eating the Burm, and the opposite? All in all...kudos to you for the work. And I figured Nigel would speak the truth.

The alligator being eaten by a python was a f\t one and we attached a f\t thawed rat to his tongue to get him to swallow the alligator. You saw the Python here on your visit in the lg. outdoor enclosure. The python being eaten by the alligators was one we obtained that had been killed in a farm field very close to ny farm [plant nursery actually].....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

I think Nigel did a great job too. It seems like the producer can make all the difference.

Mike

Hey, Mike you looked good on camera....
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

The last ten minutes where Skip Snow was talking about how the food supply in the everglades could run out, the pythons causing endangered species to go extinct, the the possible dangers the pythons pose ,a python being picked up by a fork truck, a guy jamming on his breaks almost getting into a car wreck because of a python etc., made quite statement,

The shows wrap sent out a pretty strong message. Like many great boxers know you coast the whole round , then throw a flurry at the end and steal the round.

ERNIE EISON
WESTWOOD ACRES REPTILE FARM INC.

You're correct and what I never could understand is how you can have an existing predator without a prey base..Maybe it's just me...Perhaps over time the Pythons will become vegans..LOL
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Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Mike got good face time, too