Fla. Eyes Loosing Bounty Hunters on Pythons

Some 150K snakes living in Everglades
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted May 29, 2009 1:20 PM CDT
Fla. Eyes Loosing Bounty Hunters on Pythons
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, center, is shown a Burmese python by Theresa Walters, left, and Skip Snow, right, during a tour of the Florida Everglades Thursday, May 28, 2009.   (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

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.

The Everglades python population has soared to some 150,000, and “they have no enemies once they get past 6 feet long,” a conservation official notes. Scientists say clearing them out poses a major challenge, because they move fast and can be hard to find. But “if we can send someone to the moon, we can figure out how to get rid of a snake,” said a state wildlife commissioner.
(More Everglades stories.)

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