Deer being decimated in South Fla

[Hunting Teacher]

the test group was Gainesville, Fla and knocked 7 of the 9 snakes out cold. NC Hillbilly gonna need to buy some of my python heaters.

Well of course. Most anything would die if required to live in Gatorville!! The stench is bad enough just driving by on 75!!

 

[southernboy2147]

Because if people heard there was a "exotic" snake, there would be panic in the streets? Women shouting, men crying, just utter Chaos!

They should probably just drain the lake!

The genesis of the great Lake Sinclair Snake conspiracy!

....and so it begins!

actually.... It would, before u get funny thank about if that woulda got out nobody woulda been caught in that water, people woulda wigged. Cause then all kinda rumors would come about and the "sightings" would increased.

Sounds better than your geneis joke and makes alot more sense if u really think about it.

Not sayin any of its true because like i said i heard it from my brothers friends that all fish together and that was it.

 

[joedublin]

Put a bounty on the snakes AND a larger bounty of the IDIOTS that are turning them loose in the Everglades...a big bounty on them and some jail time might be the right solutiuon to some of it....I HATE IDIOTS!

 

[mtr3333]

Well of course. Most anything would die if required to live in Gatorville!! The stench is bad enough just driving by on 75!!

They haven't been saying much lately.

 

[Thunder]

Bounty

Put a bounty on the snakes AND a larger bounty of the IDIOTS that are turning them loose in the Everglades...a big bounty on them and some jail time might be the right solutiuon to some of it....I HATE IDIOTS!

Bounty hunters for the snakes AND the idiots that turn the snakes and other exotics loose. If someone driving down the road sees something, they will likely keep on driving unless they get a reward for turning em in.

Kill the snakes and lock up the idiots (or huge fine) down there that buy em then turn em loose!!

 

[Qwikdiesel]

The pythons in the Everglades can live in climates up to North Carolina. They are shoot on sight outside the Everglades National Park but protected inside which makes the park a big nursery,

This is false.. Last years cold snap killed a BUNCH of them down south. If south florida could get into the 30's for a few days it would wipe out all of them that didn't get to warmer water. Same goes for those crazy iguanas running everywhere.

Here's part of the study done at the University of South Carolina.



How cold can you go?

To test those predictions, researchers recently brought 10 adult male pythons from the Everglades to South Carolina, to see whether they could survive the cooler climate. After implanting a radio transmitter and a temperature logger in each snake, the researchers let them loose in June 2009 in a snake-proof outdoor enclosure.

All 10 pythons did well through the summer and fall, and even survived 12 December nights that were no warmer than 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Then, in January, the region was plunged into an extremely unusual cold spell. With temperatures dipping below freezing at night for long stretches, the 10 snakes died, according to a paper published in September online in the journal Biological Invasions.

 

[Backwoods33]

The python story is on ABC nightline as we speak

 

[Son]

Snake huggers comes to mind.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I,ve been Tryin hard to find Them. Buddy of Mine got a 20 or 21 Footer bout 2 Months ago He,s got the Skin mounted on His Campground Office Wall . Most of the Snakes seem to be in the 8/15 Foot range right now. One that size ain,t gonna take down a Deer. Possums and Coons love the Pond edges.. These are Water Snakes.. Bet Coons are really gettin Ate Up .
Theres always been low numbers of Deer in Everglades NP. Most of it is under Water or Saw Grass Paries that strech for Miles Poor Land for Deer. .
My Thoughts ..And I,ve Lived here for 45 Years... Panthers.
We got way more now that 10 Years ago. Their coming into Town now
Between an abundance of Panthers , and now Big Honkin snakes ..And Me and My Huntin Pards... We,ll have them gone in no time .

I lived in Bradenton (or Bradentucky for Swamp Hunter) for seven years and made many trips to the glades and keys. From the numbers of gators and turtles I saw down there, I find it hard to believe these snakes are gonna take over... Nature will work all this out...

 

[GT-40 GUY]

I've actually read that cold fronts kill off more of the pythons then the hunters do. That reason alone is why there shouldn't be much of a concern of them migrating north.

I've read that they can hibernate and live & thrive as far north as St.Louis.

gt40

PS: Probably live in the N.Y. sewers with the crocs too.

 

[sgtstinky]

This is false.. Last years cold snap killed a BUNCH of them down south. If south florida could get into the 30's for a few days it would wipe out all of them that didn't get to warmer water. Same goes for those crazy iguanas running everywhere.

Here's part of the study done at the University of South Carolina.



How cold can you go?

To test those predictions, researchers recently brought 10 adult male pythons from the Everglades to South Carolina, to see whether they could survive the cooler climate. After implanting a radio transmitter and a temperature logger in each snake, the researchers let them loose in June 2009 in a snake-proof outdoor enclosure.

All 10 pythons did well through the summer and fall, and even survived 12 December nights that were no warmer than 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Then, in January, the region was plunged into an extremely unusual cold spell. With temperatures dipping below freezing at night for long stretches, the 10 snakes died, according to a paper published in September online in the journal Biological Invasions.

There has been a push to ban exotic pets, not just snakes for some years. This is being perpetrated by HSUS and other animal rights groups. They have successfully lobbied and their influence has swayed the current administration. Granted, there is a problem with invasive species, but the damage being done by pythons in comparison to other pets is laughable. For example, domestic cats have killed more pet owners than theses snakes, and their impact (cats) on the local fauna is far greater than the current python problem. Snakes are any easy target for the HSUS in their attempts to ban exotic pets, and ultimately ANY pet ownership. People hate snakes.

The first attempts at banning pythons was based on a study that was found to be junk after peer review, their conclusions on population growth and the potential to expand their range was based on predictive global warming models, and averaged temperatures from the locations that the researches wanted to show were susceptible to range expansion. The problem with averaging temperatures is that you don't wind up with the outliers that can effectively reduce or eliminated python populations. It only takes a few nights below freezing to significantly reduce a population of tropical snakes. This is exactly what happened in south Florida last year, freezing temperatures knocked out 80 to 90 percent of the pythons. With regards to global warming I don't trust any study, either from those that support it or reject it due to the politics involved.

This current study appears to be junk too, I can't see pythons reducing the deer population by 94%, someone appears to be stuck on stupid. But, this is how lobbyists work, find some like minded researches, publish some junk to make your point legit, and then advance your agenda.

 

[Fl Cracker]

Several years ago the Miccosuke's had a study conducted by biologists on their reservation between area 3 South and Eastern Big Cypress that showed nearly the exact same massive reduction in mammals. Their culprit was determined to be cougars. It was part of a lawsuit, and I'm sure it can be found on the internet. This occurred prior to the highly publicized python epidemic.

From personal experience, I saw it first hand in the 90's at a private inholding in Turner River(BCNP). I was out there at least a couple of weekends per month from the late 80's to about 2000. We had a large number of hogs and racoons that frequented our feeder and would come in the camp yard until the mid nineties. About that time we started seeing cougar tracks in the roads on a regular basis and heard the screaming day and night. Prior to that time it was very rare to ever see a track(Like every few years)and I had never heard one. Within a couple years the hogs and racoons were completely gone, without even a track being seen now. The deer population is affected, but not nearly as bad as the hogs. The turkeys seem to be benefiting from the elimination of hogs and other varmints. Now that everything else is gone, I'm sure the deer are next.

During all this time I heard of one large python being seen in a trail and shot at in the 80's. We never saw any other sign of them crossing the mud roads in this area or heard of anyone else who did.

 

[The Horned Toad]

They should just release Honey Badgers in Florida to eat the snakes.

 

[Tomahawk1088]

Can you just shoot them when you see them? If you can, I will look for some next time I go down there. Don't need a bounty for them, I want to make a matching belt and holster

 

[bigblocktransam]

I'm no biologist, or expert, but I did grow up homestead and spent much of my life in the glades, I personally wouldn't credit the snakes to a deer population decline, for one, in 2008 I was in the big cypress, saw a very high number of panther tracts, alot higher than I recall in 1998 my last time in the cypress, also, I notices a large increase in the amount of hunters!! In 1998 you could stay out at burns lake, and see 3 or 4 other hunters over the course of the weekend, shoot now just got to the jetport and see how many buggys u see! A good measure would be to check out area 3a or 3b, panthers don't exactly inhabit there, also it's a lottery draw, but the snakes arent limited to those areas, so those areas would be a good caparison point for wildlife/deer numbers compared to surrounding areas with drier ground... My 2 cents

 

[Lake_and_stream]

They need to put a bounty on the snakes and make it a felony to possess a live one.

Bounty is the key word in this entire thread. In this economy if the paid 5 dollars a snake dead. They would see the population drop pretty fast. Forget catching them live , forget the study , just wipe them out in mass numbers.

 

[shakey gizzard]

I lived in Bradenton (or Bradentucky for Swamp Hunter) for seven years and made many trips to the glades and keys. From the numbers of gators and turtles I saw down there, I find it hard to believe these snakes are gonna take over... Nature will work all this out...

Kinda like the Asian carp?

 

[shakey gizzard]

I lived in Bradenton (or Bradentucky for Swamp Hunter) for seven years and made many trips to the glades and keys. From the numbers of gators and turtles I saw down there, I find it hard to believe these snakes are gonna take over... Nature will work all this out...

Kinda like the Asian carp?

 

[bigblocktransam]

The problem on the bounty is not a lot of ppl have the means of transportation, were talking 3-400000 acres of wetlands, rough country by anymeans, your limited to atv in very few places, airboats to other and full tracks and swamp buggys, you couldn't make a profit just in fuel cost.. And the stare of fla couldn't afford anything higher, its a bad situation. A good possibility if the water authority or flood control just flood the glades for about 2 years. Loose majority if wildlife and start over

 

[NOYDB]

To save them you have to kill them.....