Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few links

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jaK4cBu4P6abh4e2_LN0cv_bcjowD9F49VJO0&ct=ga&cad=1:2:0&cd=1NdboHCqA1Q&usg=AFQjCNGYuwvlY2ZxZVhPDOSenFlv11DAYg

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/16/1583034/fla-python-hunting-season-comes.html&ct=ga&cad=1:2:0&cd=1NdboHCqA1Q&usg=AFQjCNGsmlI1Wow3YjX2tTyiauo-ruNyhA

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/16/python-hunting-season-ends-no-snakes-killed/news-metro/&ct=ga&cad=1:2:0&cd=1NdboHCqA1Q&usg=AFQjCNE8YXDQjSCsYKEhjXaEwd6XZ_s_pw

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100416/us-python-problems&ct=ga&cad=1:2:0&cd=1NdboHCqA1Q&usg=AFQjCNHEFsJ-mX1HJZ8IJ2GfHzEcsrLdlw

I was a bit curious. Have there been any Python sightings at all lately?
jsc
-----
"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

No there are VERY FEW Pythons left. I know of dozens of people including myself who are actively looking for Pythons and they just are so few [if any] you simply can't find them. I caught one live one about 10 days post freeze but it died not a week later from a respiratory problem. My guess is the few that survied the freeze may have died later from RI issues. The rearchers have said they found a lg. female along with about 5 males breeding on a Hammock near Pay-Ha-Okee in the ENP. By their own admission they have found NO others and neither has anyone else I'm aware of. All the areas I used to routinely find Pythons outside the ENP are now without Pythons or so it appears [no one finds any]. It remains to be seen but my guess is their nearly gone or someone somewhere would find one. Even the Green Iguanas have almost vanished except for the Florida Keys populations...
-----
Tom Crutchfield
www.tomcrutchfield.com

Has there been any reports of the Deering Estate Boas that you are aware of. I am curious as to how they did this winter. Hopefully with such a high death rate on all of these non native species we will have a better chance in our cause.

"Hopefully with such a high death rate on all of these non native species we will have a better chance in our cause."

One would certainly hope. If common sense makes any difference (I know it doesn't with politics) then you would think the idea of pythons spreading to 1/3 of the US would be shot down when it is now looking like they can't spread to 1/3 of Florida.

Also, I certainly don't want to throw the Burms under the bus but the boas REALY never made any sense to me with what sounded like a very limited and barely sustaining population and the fact that they've had ages to come up naturally into California or Texas already if they could.

Hope others aren’t slipping into complacency as I was tempted armed with the results of this winter’s cold fronts. Just because I can’t see how even people who apparently know nothing about boids could still think a ban is justified doesn’t mean they aren’t still hell bent on pushing one through. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry at the article on some new Florida boid restriction that quoted a state legislator who talked about how popular bills have become that didn’t cost the government anything. Basically she was saying that once they run out of our money to spend they focus their free time restricting our freedoms. She was even a Republican, so sad.

Hope others aren’t slipping into complacency as I was tempted armed with the results of this winter’s cold fronts.

I certainly haven't. I've been watching for any reports on the bills on banning roc's here in Fl. but haven't seen anything surface lately. The house and senate versions of those state bills were both sponsored by republicans, and they wonder why they had their axxes handed to them in the last 2 national elections.

I suspect that given the recent volcanic activity we may see a repeat of this last winter come next winter as major eruptions do tend to make for cooler winters and I suspect we are in a cooling pattern for winters here in Fl. anyway. If your in Fl. bring your lizards and turtles in this winter and cover your mango and guava trees.

I hear the El Nino/Nina cycle appears to have flipped so wouldn't expect that to continue to cause a repeat of last year's cool summer and winter but especially if that 2nd bigger volcano blows that could certainly cause a 2nd cool winter in a row and dare we hope eradicate the feral burms altogether. An ice age would be way more harmful to humans than global warming.

Last summer here was not all that cool. Btw it was the last TWO winters that were cool here it is just that this last one was over the top. In fact to be honest with you the lows at my house were not anything unusually low for the winter (I'm not sure if the lowest temp was 23 or 24f, I don't remember. lows of 24f are not common but not unheard of at my house I usually get at least a few nights each year where temps drop into the mid to upper 20's.) nor were they really that unusually low in the greater Orlando area. What was different than most years was that the temps did not go back up the next day. there were several days where the temps did not go out of the low to mid 30's during the day where they typically go back up to the mid to upper 50's after such fronts.
As far as the El nino la nina crap. we here it every year down hear el nino this la nina that combine it with the large hispanic population trying to shove spanish down our throats and pretty soon it all sounds like la la la la la la la la la la la .
Here's my take on it from the perspective of not only being a landscaper but also from keeping reptiles outside for many years .
Every year the winters here are mild and every year some meteorologists start spouting off about one or the other of the 2 mexican weather phenomena el la bla bla bla. every year no matter which one we have we will inevitably have a few fronts that will throw some colder than normal temperatures (usually in the upper 20's north of Orlando) that will have every fern, strawberry and citrus farmer in the area crying doom. Every year they pass and miraculously we still have fern strawberry and citrus farmers.
Some winters it gets colder than others like the last 2 and for a while it looked like there was somewhat of a warming trend which I notice from what people are growing in the greater Orlando area and what is surviving through the winters.
What I have noticed is that the warming and cooling trends appear to come in cycles. Whether or not they really are related to the el nino and la nina cycles I can't really say because like I said they are screaming one or the other every year and they weather isn't THAT much different.
I can tell you that it was a wetter than normal winter here and usually when the winters here are wet the temps are a bit higher than normal so in that sense I guess it was a bit odd.

The two companion bills that would ban ROC's in Florida were both sponsored by Democrats. There is another bill sponsored by a Republican that seeks to regulate sales of reptiles in and out of the state; as well as tightening ROC statute. But the ban bills are both out of Democrats.
-----
USARK

Nice to see both parties making fools of themselves.

I am going to take your word on my being incorrect. I may have misunderstood sen. constantine's role in this legislation. He is however a republican although some refer to him as a rino (republican in name only.). Personally I think both parties are 2 sides of a worthless coin and at this point there is no difference between the 2 parties imo.
I concede that I may have been wrong about which party originated the bills but the republicans hold a big enough majority in the house and senate here in Fl. that without the help of republicans any bill proposed by democrats just will not pass. So if they do pass both parties are equally guilty imo.