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Is the python hunt all hype?
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by tigers9 on July 30, 2009
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<<"We've got a lot of politicians that are looking to get elected, and in this type of story, things get exaggerated," said Greg Graziani, one of the original licensed python hunters and a professional breeder from Venus, in Highlands County>>
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/content/local_news/epaper/2009/07/30/0730pythons.html
Is the python hunt all hype? Scientists try to squeeze some truth into snake search
By PAUL QUINLAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 30, 2009
One week after a pet python escaped its terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson unfurled a 16-foot python skin at a congressional hearing and warned, "It's just a matter of time before one of these things gets to a visitor in the Florida Everglades."
The next week, he called for forming a python posse to hunt and kill the beasts, citing the "estimated 100,000 or more pythons now roaming the 'Glades." So began the Great Florida Python Hunt, with a special media kickoff in the Everglades during which, miraculously, hunters captured one of the elusive snakes.
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Afterward Nelson told The Associated Press: "One down, 99,999 to go." And as recently as this morning, NBC reporter Kerry Sanders - reporting hip-deep from a swamp in western Palm Beach County - announced on the Today Show that "it's estimated there are more than 150,000 wild Burmese pythons on the loose."
Well, not exactly.
The idea that scientists estimate the number of pythons living in the Everglades at 100,000 - or 150,000, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney of Tequesta - is one of several questionable facts and statistics that have helped propel the Everglades' five-year-old python problem into headlines around the world this month.
Other claims include the fear that pythons, if ignored, will come to dominate the Everglades food chain, wiping out whole species, and eventually spread across the Southern third of the United States and into our back yards.
In fact, the number of pythons in Everglades National Park is probably closer to around 30,000, park biologists say.
What's more, pythons face numerous predators in the Everglades, raising the possibility that the population growth could plateau well before significant numbers of the snakes find their way into our back yards. And new research has cast doubt on an oft-cited government study that says pythons could spread well beyond South Florida latitudes.
Nobody disputes that pythons pose a threat to the ecosystem - in particular, to wading birds and the dozens of other threatened or endangered species that live in the Everglades.
What is debatable is how much damage they could do. Biologists and snake experts note that some facts have been skewed in the fun-house mirror of sensational politics and news coverage.
"We've got a lot of politicians that are looking to get elected, and in this type of story, things get exaggerated," said Greg Graziani, one of the original licensed python hunters and a professional breeder from Venus, in Highlands County.
Most scientists agree that the non-native pythons arrived in the Everglades when careless pet owners released them or allowed them to escape as they grew too large. Another suspect is breeders whose cages were destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Estimates that 150,000 pythons live in the Everglades are loosely based on "guesstimates" by Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park wildlife biologist and resident python expert, of how many could live in the Everglades, based on available habitat. In fact, Snow offers a wide range: 5,000 to 138,000.
"We don't know how many are out there," said Snow, who estimates the true number at around 30,000. "We know that it's not hundreds, and clearly, everyone is comfortable saying there are thousands."
Experts, including researchers at the University of Florida, cite the exponential rise in the number of pythons caught as evidence of population growth. But those statistics may be skewed by improved intelligence and intensified efforts to locate and track the stealthy reptiles, concedes Bill Hallac, the park's chief of biological resources.
From 1979 through 2001, park biologists never saw more than three snakes captured in any given year. Since then, captures have risen sharply, jumping from 14 in 2002 to 343 last year - for a cumulative total of 1,074 as of early July.
The numbers "really took off in 2003 and 2004, where we started to do road surveys and get the word out," Snow said. The park has also run a trapping program with help from volunteers and begun researching techniques, including attracting pythons using pheromones.
Consider the "Judas snakes."
In 2005, the park began implanting snakes with $250 radio transmitters, each the size of a lipstick tube with a foot-long wire antenna. They released the snakes and tracked them back to the first python "nest," the existence of which confirmed the reptiles were breeding. In its first two years, the program led to the capture of at least 25 snakes.
Dissections have turned up all manner of wildlife in the bellies of pythons, including the remains of white-tailed dear, alligators and even a bobcat. But that's not to say that pythons are not themselves prey - to raccoons, wild pigs, birds and, of course, bobcats and alligators, say experts and scientists.
Graziani, the python breeder, said he suspects that large animal remains found in the stomachs of pythons may have belonged to critters already dead when the pythons came upon them.
"The fact that one of these things was found with a bobcat claw doesn't mean these things are out killing bobcats," he said.
Some say predictions that pythons will overrun the Everglades ignore other, equally likely outcome: the population plateaus.
"I cant imagine that it won't," said Harry Greene, an ecology professor and snake expert at Cornell University. "At some point, every population reaches its carrying capacity and it levels off or crashes."
Of course, that point may not be reached until the Key Largo wood rat or some other endangered species has been gobbled out of existence.
But what of the danger to humans?
Pet pythons of various types have killed 12 people in the United States since 1980, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Documented cases of wild pythons killing humans exist, although they are rare. None has occurred in this country.
The Miami Herald has cited two cases: One in Indonesia, in which a teenager was devoured by a 31-foot reticulated python, and another in the mid-1990s in which a 23-foot python killed and tried to swallow a rubber plantation worker in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Some Web sites show photos of humans being cut out of the stomachs of snakes, although some experts believe the photos were faked.
In February 2008, the U.S. Geological Survey released a study warning that the python invasion of South Florida could spread far north - even across the entire Southern third of the United States, in part because of projected global warming.
But the USGS "didn't do a very good analysis," said Cornell's Greene. Frank Burbrink, an associate professor of biology at the City University of New York's College of Staten Island, examined a much wider range of ecological factors in his own study released six months later, concluding that pythons could roost only in South Florida and the southern tip of Texas.
"There's a lot of hype on various sides of this, but I do think there really is a problem," said Greene. "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."
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by ssshane on July 30, 2009
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Where can we find how many have actually been "caught or killed" since the hunt officially began?
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by tigers9 on July 30, 2009
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SSShane, i just cheked your profile, u need to rewrite it with addendum to mix alcohol (rubbing) with reptiles when atatcked;-)
Z
<<What advice do you have for new venomous keepers ?
Stay on your toes. Never mix alcohol and HOTS. Use the proper equipment (ALWAYS)snake-proof the room, after all it is your family who will be at risk.
>>
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by tj on July 31, 2009
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"Where can we find how many have actually been "caught or killed" since the hunt officially began?"
You probably won't get the exact amount.
"i think FWC website says 5 or so, definitely in single digit"
Bogus. We got 3 on one night last week. Doubtful only a few others have been captured and even more doubtful when I know others have caught them...not in the single digits, BTW....and exactly the reason you'll never see the exact amount.
Those estimates are probably by the same person who estimates 150,000 pythons in the Glades.
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by xvenomx on August 1, 2009
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Hey I've been looking for a cheap burm, I guess I should take a trip to the glades and catch a few.......I shouldn't have any trouble finding them, I mean there are over half a million by now, right?
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by tj on August 1, 2009
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"Hey I've been looking for a cheap burm, I guess I should take a trip to the glades and catch a few.......I shouldn't have any trouble finding them, I mean there are over half a million by now, right?"
It depends on what news outlet or Florida politician you listen to as to the number of pythons...it grows from one to the next. And, keep in mind, even though they are exotic, it is still illegal to take them from the Glades. Stupid law, but still enforced.
"tj how can i believe what you say your profile is incomplete"
I really don't care if you believe me or not, while standing on your tiny soapbox. I've been on this site far longer than you or probably 75% of the people here and probably have a few thousand posts.
I rarely post on the hot forums anymore and when I do, it's pertinent info related to a topic or a warning.
You don't like my profile not being filled out, tough $h!t. Someone important will delete it if they feel the need and then people like you can be in the dark about what is really going on outside their computer rooms.
Chris/Karl, sorry for the attitude.
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by pictigaster1 on August 1, 2009
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I use one of those little hotel soap boxes and it has now collapsed .tj I know you are telling the truth I was in a bad mood this mourning.So I will digress Some of us who do not know you or any of a bunch of people like to read the profiles.If you do not wish to complete it then that is up to you.As you know a profile carries no more crebility than any othe written paper.
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RE: Is the python hunt all hype?
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by tj on August 1, 2009
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No harm, no foul. I was probably a tad too defensive.
I haven't posted more than 3 or 4 posts on any hot forums in the past year, probably. I usually keep to myself when browsing unless there is something I think someone might find useful. That's few and far between these days in hotkeeping. Things have gotten too crazy in the hobby, so I decided to get out of it completely and focus more on the field and volunteer work. There are no worries of bans for either of those....
I did have a complete profile up, but deleted it and every other one when I decided to stay off the hot forums. And, like you said, a written profile doesn't really mean a whole lot. I could have said I was a PhD or ScD.....but, like some others, I'm not.
I'll post here and there, but it's not my opinions anymore, only some helpful blurbs here and there. If people want to listen, it's cool. If they want to take me with a grain of salt, that's cool, too.
I'm not out to argue anymore or try to prove myself. Spent way too much time over the years, and really shouldn't have.
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