Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


 ANALYSIS 
6

Fla. Python Hunt More Wild Goose Chase

Share

(Newser) – The “Great Florida Python Hunt” is on, but the prey population is likely smaller—and less dangerous—than advertised, Paul Quinlan writes in the Palm Beach Post. Proponents have said there could be 100-150,000 Burmese pythons in the Everglades, a figure the media has seized upon. But the biologist who’s the source of the 150,000 number—a “guesstimate”—puts the real figure nearer 30,000.

“We’ve got a lot of politicians that are looking to get elected, and in this type of story, things get exaggerated,” a python hunter says. Which is not to say there’s not a problem, an expert says, when an “exotic, vertebrate predator that weights well over 100 pounds” is loose in a national park.

Police measuring a Burmese python after removing it from a home in Oxford, Fla. The python broke out of a terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom at the central Florida home.
Police measuring a Burmese python after removing it from a home in Oxford, Fla. The python broke out of a terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom at the central Florida home.   (AP Photo)
Skip Snow, left, and Theresa Walters, right, taking a Burmese python out of its cage before showing it to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, not shown, in the Florida Everglades.
Skip Snow, left, and Theresa Walters, right, taking a Burmese python out of its cage before showing it to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, not shown, in the Florida Everglades.   (AP Photo)
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., holds the skin of a 16-foot-long, 150 pound Burmese Python captured along a Miami-Dade County, Fla., canal.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., holds the skin of a 16-foot-long, 150 pound Burmese Python captured along a Miami-Dade County, Fla., canal.   (AP Photo)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

If you have an exotic, vertebrate predator that weights well over 100 pounds, is thriving in a national park and can possibly extend its range into the Southeastern U.S., it certainly deserves to be addressed. - Harry Greene, Cornell University

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.24.09
Murdoch and Microsoft: The Mice Are Trying to Roar
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
6 comments
VIEWING:
 
DJM420
Jul 30, 09 12:06 PM CDT
cant we just send in cheney? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+5
IN RESPONSE:
UrUndertaker
Jul 30, 09 12:17 PM CDT
No kidding, that piece of human refuge would do well in the Glades but it would be a cruel and inhumane way to treat the creatures what must dwell in the swamps, they have it tough enough having Jeb Bush reside in the same state as it is.
Vote up! Vote down!
+6
Sabrina
Jul 30, 09 12:28 PM CDT
You guys are being pretty mean......to the wildlife in the everglades don't you think? On a serious note? They can't get them out of the Swamps quickly enough, they need to be removed at all cost to attempt to maintain the proper ballance in nature and not allow another invasive species to overrun the natural population as has happened so many times before Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
+1
Timinator2K
Jul 30, 09 12:36 PM CDT
Monty's Python must have already chased and swallowed that wild goose. Python Pate, anyone? Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
Derni
Jul 30, 09 8:36 PM CDT
I guess its funny until the large snales take over the eco -system or a human gets killed by one of them Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0

View all 6 comments »

LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

16 Stories

(Newser) - With Florida’s python population exploding, state wildlife officials are going on the offensive, hiring a team of trained hunters to track down the alarmingly large snakes and take them out, the Miami Herald reports. “There’s one way to do this: kill the snakes,” says Florida Sen.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Florida • snakes • hunting • Charlie Crist • Bill Nelson • Everglades • pythons

(Newser) - A 2-year-old Florida girl was strangled to death yesterday by a pet python owned by her mother’s boyfriend, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Charles Darnell noticed that his 8-foot-long albino Burmese python had escaped from its aquarium when he awoke yesterday morning. He found it on top of the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Florida • snake • burmese python • pythons • snake attack

Fla. Eyes Loosing Bounty Hunters on Pythons

Some 150K snakes living in Everglades

May 29, 09 1:20 PM CDT
(Newser) - With pythons slithering amok in the Everglades, Florida wildlife managers are toying with the notion of employing bounty hunters to cull the population, the Miami Herald reports. “If we don't get on top of this, they're going to eradicate the indigenous species of the Everglades,” said one. Officials... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Florida • snake • wildlife • Everglades • bounty hunter • burmese python • pythons

16 Stories


Science & Health  •  US 
TwitterFollow @NewserScience on Twitter

 
Florida • snake • Bill Nelson • Everglades • predators • burmese python • national park • hunt

from our news partners