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Statewide python hunt yields only 39 snakes
By PAUL QUINLAN
The python posses, ordered into the Everglades on a mission to kill the giant, invasive constrictors, have finished hunting - for now.
Their take: 39 snakes. The good news: most were on the small side. The bad: that means the pythons are breeding.
Florida's first-ever python hunt began three-and-a-half months ago after Gov. Charlie Cirst ordered state wildlife officials to issue licenses to herpetologists, Gladesmen and others deemed qualified to eradicate the beasts.
The python push started weeks after a pet Burmese strangled a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County, and amid coiling fears that the snakes might take over the Everglades and slither across South Florida, devouring native wildlife and, perhaps, threatening humans.
The 15 special permits expired Oct. 31, though other licensed hunters in the state may continue to kill pythons encountered on designated hunting lands.
Officials called the test-run of the python eradication program a success, even though the body count was small compared to the oft-repeated - and, some say, exaggerated - estimates that as many as 100,000 or more pythons may now live in the Everglades. No accurate estimates exist, and scientists who study the problem say only that pythons likely number in the tens of thousands.
The relatively small take was to be expected, as pythons tend to remain hidden during daylight hours in hot weather, said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
"We went into this knowing it was a sub-optimal time of year for people to be looking for pythons," said Hardin. "They don't need to be out in the daytime. It's plenty warm. They'll spend their time hunting at night."
Of the 39 Burmese Pythons caught, slightly more than half were less than 4 feet long - further evidence that pythons are breeding in the Everglades, said Hardin. The hunters' largest catch was 10 feet, 4 inches. But the largest python found in Florida was spotted in July and measured 17 feet, 2 inches long and 26 inches around at the thickest point.
He also noted that most of the snakes were found to have empty bellies.
"It tells you they're not gorging themselves all the time, as some people might suspect," said Hardin. "They typically eat big meals but not too often."
The permit-holders were required to record details of their hunts and any snakes caught, data which dispelled misconceptions the snakes would be easy to find, said Larry Connor, the FWC biologist who compiled the snake data.
"When you go out with a group for four of five hours and find, generally, one snake - I think that's fairly realistic," Connor said.
The hunt was a ground battle in the larger war to combat the snakes' spread. In Washington on Thursday, a hearing is scheduled on the proposal from U.S. Rep. Kenrick Meek, the Miami Democrat and gubernatorial candidate, to list three types of pythons - Burmese, Northern African Rock, and Southern African Rock - as "injurious species," thus outlawing their import and trade.
Out of concern for the python hunters' safety, the 15 permits were set to expire on the same day that the general gun hunting season started.
Hardin said the state would likely expand the program and resume the hunt - perhaps before the new year.
"Certainly, we want to have some people back in place during the reproductive season, which runs roughly from January through April," Hardin said.
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