'Python Patrols' Hunt Down Snakes in Fla. Keys

(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 girl in her bedroom and immediately began stabbing it. More»

Some 150K snakes living in Everglades

(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 have floated the idea to the US interior secretary, who said it was worth considering. More»

Conservationists thwarted developers' plans for Islandia

(NEWSER) - Florida's smallest city, which spans 33 islands at the north end of the Florida Keys and is home to many more manatees than people, is about to be wiped off the map. The city of Islandia only ever really existed in the minds of developers, who declared it a municipality in 1961 amid plans to blanket the pristine islands in beachfront homes, luxury hotels, and shopping centers, the New York Times finds in a look at the sham city's colorful past. Florida discovered years ago that the town's government had long been illegal and all of its municipal officials—including its first mayor, a former bootlegger—were landowners who lived off the islands and elected themselves in votes held in Miami. County commissioners are expected to abolish the city in a vote next month. More»

Invading snakes blamed for drastic decline in mammal populations

(NEWSER) - The native mammals of the Florida Everglades have been all but wiped out by huge numbers of pythons and anacondas descended from released pets, a new study finds. After nearly a decade of night-time road surveys in the 1.5 million-acre national park, researchers found that raccoon and opossum sightings were down 99% from the '90s, the Washington Post reports. Bobcat sightings were down 88%, and not a single rabbit or fox was seen, dead or alive. More»

Their cows are disappearing, but they're working with conservationists

(NEWSER) - Florida’s endangered panther population has come a long way; thirty years ago there were just 20 of the big cats left, whereas now there are more than 160 of them. That’s the good news. The bad news? Panthers will be panthers, and Florida ranchers are reporting increasing deaths of their oh-so-tasty livestock. But instead of calling for the cats’ heads, farmers are actually working with conservationists to make the panthers' return a success, Fast Company reports. More»