FLORIDA’S PYTHON-KILLING PROGRAM IS WORKING

Florida has issued an update in its war against the invasive Burmese pythons eating their way across the Everglades. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida reports it has captured and humanely killed 20 tons of the snakes since 2013, including a record 6,300 pounds of pythons killed this past breeding season. That’s a mound of snakes the size of a fire truck, or a fully loaded city bus. All of those snakes came from a 200-square-mile area in southwestern Florida. It’s estimated tens of thousands of pythons are roaming the region, devouring the native wildlife. The program has prevented more than 20,000 python eggs from hatching, the Conservancy says. The annual snake roundup has shown signs of positive effectiveness of these efforts, as male snakes increasingly struggle to locate mates.
* That’s why Floridians are encouraged to keep their garden hoses rolled up.
* They’ve gotten pretty good at finding the pythons. Now they have to go find about three dozen snake hunters that are unaccounted for.
* In order to hunt snakes in Florida, you have to be current in your vaccinations against the willies.
* If only we could do this with rabbits. (Or pigeons, or prairie dogs, or Canadian geese, or whatever animal is a pest in your area.)