Fla. Python Hunt More Wild Goose Chase

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»

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»

Florida hunts for new species of python

(NEWSER) - A state-coordinated hunt for a new invasive python population is under way in the Everglades, amid fears that Southern Florida could soon be home to a new “super snake.” The 3-day hunt launched Tuesday has so far nabbed at least five African rock pythons, one of them 14 feet long. Environmental officials fear that signals a full population of the snake out there, not a few wayward released pets, reports the Sun-Sentinel . More»

(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. Bill Nelson, who yesterday called for a hunt in the federally protected Everglades National Park, said to be home to 100,000 of them, each up to 20 feet long. More»

(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»