The 106 Burmese pythons captured over a month long hunt won’t help control Florida’s invasive snake population, but wildlife officials said Saturday that doesn’t matter as much as the awareness they bring to the state’s environmental concerns.
Thousands of pythons, far from their natural habitat in Southeast Asia, are believed to be stalking Florida wildlife in the beleaguered Everglades. The tan, splotchy snakes can be elusive in the wetlands, but Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials say volunteer python removal programs and two state-sanctioned hunts since 2009 are focusing more eyes to the problem.
“Whether they’re fishermen or they’re hunters or they’re hikers or they’re birdwatchers — they’re all looking for the python,” said wildlife commissioner Ron Bergeron. “The success of the ‘Python Challenge’ has broadened out to thousands of people now.”
PYTHON CHALLENGE
The longest python caught during the hunt that ran between Jan. 16 and Feb. 14 was 15 feet long. It was caught by a team led by Bill Booth of Sarasota.
Booth’s team also took home a prize for largest haul of snakes: 33 pythons.
Over 1,000 people from 29 states registered to remove pythons from South Florida’s wetlands.
Daniel Moniz of Bricktown, New Jersey, suffered bites to the face, neck and arm from the 13-foot-8.7-inch python that won him a prize for the longest python caught by an individual.
Faced with a winter layoff from his landscaping job, he completed the wildlife commission’s online training and spent a month biking over 40 miles a day over levees through the wetlands, eventually bagging a total of 13 pythons.
The longest one tried to swim away, until he dove on top of it. “I got it under control and stuffed it in a pillow case,” he said.
Frank Mazzotti of the University of Florida said the stomach contents of the captured pythons are still being analyzed, but so far the prey has included a fawn and a wood stork and other large wading birds.
CUSTOM TROPHIES
Once the necropsies are complete, the hunters can reclaim their dead snakes. About a third of have been turned over to Brian Wood of All American Gator in Hollywood.
Half the hunters want him to make something from the pythons they caught — a wall hanging, a pair of boots, or a purse for the wife at a fraction of the cost of a python clutch bearing a luxury designer logo.
In this photo taken Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, Brian Wood holds a purchased python in his hands at All American Gator Products in Hollywood, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
The other half are selling him their dead snakes for up to $150 apiece — about the same price Wood pays for fully processed, tanned and dyed python skins imported from Asia. (In Wood’s store, swatches show python skins dyed teal, rose pink, pale yellow and metallic gold, among other hues.)
Wood also turned about 20 pythons caught during the 2013 Python Challenge into accessories. Pythons that once slithered through the Everglades now slide out of pockets as black-and-white billfolds or hang off arms as roomy purses. A couple now stride down sidewalks, transformed into pairs of Chuck Taylor sneakers.
“It’s kind of cool to be able to get something that’s invasive, not something that’s endangered,” Wood said.
He says he regularly supplies European luxury brands with alligator skins, but they aren’t interested in Florida’s pythons. The state’s invasive snakes aren’t tracked by international trade conventions, and the volume can’t compare with the hundreds of thousands of python skins supplied each by about 10 countries in Southeast Asia.
They’re also looking for sustainable sources of python skins, while Florida just wants to be rid of its python supply.
Unfortunately, pythons are not Wood’s only supply of invasive species leathers.
“I’m trying to promote this lizard we have that’s taken over,” he says, meaning iguanas, which his sons are hired to hunt in South Florida’s urban and suburban environments.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
I hate snakes saw my 1st one at age 5 while walking behind a plow in Kansas, also, saw some monsters in south america during the Iran contra BS!
Don’t forget the invasive America hating parasites….slithering, in all the branches of, government…. who are eating our country…..CON strictors, and, restricters…. Snidely…. Edgrrr…
Now lets get rid of the snakes in the White House and elsewhere in our Government.
What is the going price?
Exotic snake sales should be shut down. That’s the source of this problem. People purchase animals without comprehending or caring how large the creature will be once grown. When they get tired of the animal they release it into the wild. This snake-release practice endangers native animals and humans.
Actually, most of Florida’s problem came from pet shops destroyed by Hurricane Andrew. And while there’re always a few boneheads that will buy totally inappropriate animals for their husbandry abilities (few years ago, cops in Chicago stopped a pair of women with an Indian cobra in the backseat that one of them had bought as a “pet” for her 10-year-old son), people who paint all owners with the same brush are just as irresponsible as those they’re attacking. It’s like this map that some liberal ban-it-all made claiming almost half the US could be infested with pythons. Big snakes need temps in the 90’s plus humidity to reproduce, and they can’t even survive anywhere that freezing’s possible. A test release in South Carolina proved that pythons can’t survive winter outside of southern Florida and (maybe) southern parts of Texas, though Texas is awfully dry.
I love snakes. They make the best meal you can imagine and produce a neat pair of boots!
I agree cook those snakes smoke them bake them . You will never go with out a meal bet you you can feed many people with all those snakes in the swamp
Yeah, but picking all those bones . . .
Kill the snakes, all of them, even the ones in the white house. Snakes are useless.
The one in the white house is the most dangerous.
Actually, smaller pythons are good rodent control. They’ll chase them in sewer pipes too small for cats to go into.
Especially….. the reptilian illiterati….. slitherers, at, law…..Snidely…. Edgrrr….
The real question is …… Do they taste like chicken?
Send the snakes to the disruptive college in california.
What is with all this training course Anyone that has a concealed carry license should be able to rid Florida of an problem snake. Sounds like the old adage; follow the money some body has there hand out someware
Never though of this, but is this not a sportsman’s dream? Open hunt for Pythons in Florida and wild boar season in Texas?
Maybe even open fishing season for the Asian Carp. I think we need some travel agents here to put this all together.
I love the do they taste like chicken ? I live by Tampa and I ‘ve been wanting my fiancé to ride our Harley down to the Keys.. Now that l’m seeing how many snakes and how crazy huge they are maybe we should rent a big Hummer. Thanks to all the brave guys who killed as many as they could. Or maybe we could get an Army tank !
why is there not open season on these snakes and other invasive species plus every thing in side the beltway, white house
Why don’t they put a bounty on them of about $10.00 per foot of length? You can bet all them Southern boys will have the snake population under control in no time.
Let us hope Florida officials will continue an unrelenting assault on these destructive snakes. The hope of eradicating them is small, but they must try. Further, they should vigorously pursue any seller, importer, buyer of these snakes and prosecute them to the limit of the law. These reptiles are destroying the natural balance in the Everglades, and else where in Florida, and must be elliminated. Don’t put a time limit on killing them. Put a reasonable bounty on them. Encourage their destruction.
Kill all snakes there are plenty of other less dangerous predators to eat off the insect and rodent population.
I agree the WH is constricting us like the BOAS they are. The one in there now (all of them) are the worst ever in our lifetime. Never had America felt or seen such liars and thieves.
AND ungrateful for all they stole and are stealing.
Did anyone see the designer clothing the spoiled brat wears? I wonder what they will do when they pay rent, taxes or mortgage with all those privileged amenities??
I can hardly wait to see how long Grannie will keep her !outh djut when she has to clean her own Indies. Never in our lifetime have we seen a mommie in law taking advantage age of the taxpayers like she has.
My oh my. Folders is really going to homoitnof business!if she continues to use coffee cans for her couiffer. Enough to make a big chuckle. She should take her stance at the bus stop for a week.