Python Hunt! 800 Compete to Remove Florida's Invasive Snakes

I favor python hunting, but these are invasive animals I don't know why the hunting should be limited. Seems to me anyone should be able to kill a python in Florida any time they see it. That is the way it is with other invasive species, like the Asian doves or wild hogs.

Guess another bureaucracy found another reason for its existence...
 
Alligatorob said:
I favor python hunting, but these are invasive animals I don't know why the hunting should be limited. Seems to me anyone should be able to kill a python in Florida any time they see it. That is the way it is with other invasive species, like the Asian doves or wild hogs. Guess another bureaucracy found another reason for its existence...
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I don't see anywhere that says they are limiting the hunting. They are just limiting the time to compete for prize money.

I think it's a brilliant idea but difficult to sustain any success since every Python lays 100 eggs per year. It's like fleas...you have to keep coming back for treatments to get the babies and then they come back next season. Thankfully, I'm living in a place that doesn't have any fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, nor pythons...the beach.
 
I have heard and read that people have set free a lot of different animals and reptiles into the Everglades that they were tired of keeping, including several different species of snakes, including cobras.
 
Lara said:
I don't see anywhere that says they are limiting the hunting.
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My knowledge of the python hunt is a bit dated so I looked it up. And you are right, on lands not owned by the federal government anyway, python hunting is allowed there more or less without restrictions. See https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/nonnatives/python/removing/

However it appears there are restrictions still in place on federal lands, particularly Everglades National Park, which is where many of the pythons are, and where they probably represent the greatest environmental impact. As of last year (could not find anything from this year) the Park Service still limited the number of hunters and only allowed hunters to remove live pythons, not to kill them. See https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/npspythonmanagement.htm
 
Yeah, why only once a year hunt, that means they have the other 51 weeks to thrive-and EAT?
BTW, if you think pythons are great survivalist animals, that carved out a niche; there are now 15 online python hunting license schools.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
there are now 15 online python hunting license schools.
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Interesting, not sure what you would have to go to school for though. I would think you could learn pretty much everything you need to know in a few hours of online research...

I do support python and other invasive species hunting. However it never seems to work to eliminate the invaders. Just to reduce the numbers, still a good thing. South Florida in particular is host to a whole lot of invasive species, see

Florida's Nonnative Fish and Wildlife​

 
Yeah I've been involved in a Python hunt in the Everglades, but not the Python Challenge. My first ever for Pythons. The picture is a genuine Burmese Reticulated Python. We saw a lot of other creepy, crawly things too. This one we took alive. I cutout my guide's picture and my face because I am not very good at editing, but it's the snake you want to see anyway. That' my neck that the snake is wrapped around. We got just over $300 for this snake. We stayed out all night. That's the best time to hunt down there for most anything. We also did some nighttime shark fishing. I caught 1 small Thresher Shark. Want to see it?

Python (2).JPG
 
Alligatorob said:
Nice snake, nice picture!

What happened to the snake in the end? Don't know what you could do with a live one...
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I asked that question when I called about where to take it and was told it would be euthanized and it was. I had to take it to a wildlife management center located inside the Everglades and they euthanized it right there.
Not good eating, but some people do eat Python meat. I once heard that Australians eat it.
 
Moon Rat said:
was told it would be euthanized
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Yeah, that is the only thing that can be done. Too many live pythons in the world.

So why not just let the hunters kill them? It would save a lot of trouble.

I have heard of people eating them, but I never have. Eaten a little rattlesnake, not terrible, but a lot of trouble for a little meat. Pythons are bigger.
 

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