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The men fighting Florida’s python epidemic
- bmc7505 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect
- c22 8y agoCan we lowercase python in the title? This was not the Python I was looking for.
- sametmax 8y agoFor a second I wondered why would you fight such a thing ? Then it hit me...
- tyingq 8y ago"There was just whitespace, everywhere, it was... frightening"
- apple4ever 8y ago“In the middle of the fight, tabs and spaces invaded and war’s brutality took a new turn.”
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- spacesuitman2 8y agoThanks for making this reddit 2.0, I am laughing so incredibly hard at that insightful comment. Wow. How "punny" and fantastic these comments are! They're all the same. You remind me of a snot-nosed idiot spitting at his computer screen laughing about these dumb memes. Go back to reddit, boomer.
- arbuge 8y agoI was wondering how its runaway success was so well confined within state boundaries... PHP protected by the state constitution in its neighbors?
- mrfusion 8y agoI personally can’t wait for a python language epidemic!
- _asummers 8y agoThe article above this right now on the front page is "Awesome Python" which I found rather humorous in combination with your comment.
- neya 8y agoI almost thought it was going to be a 2.7 vs 3.x discussion until I saw the cover photo...you got me, OP. Haha.
- larrydag 8y agoOur family visited the Everglades a few years ago. This is indeed an epidemic to the natural habitat. In fact the guides said that anyone can come by and hunt Python. The biggest threat is to the birds in the area.
- ReptileMan 8y agoThis problem looks like could be solved with specialty drones.
- tyingq 8y agoDropping poison? A python is a pretty big thing to kill some other way with a drone.
- brownbat 8y agoWith some duct tape and a machete, you could try to hack together some python to make a drone that tries to hack pythons.
- ReptileMan 8y agoI was thinking more mechanical means. Something that just thrawls and chops pythons. Also drone != flying. Something terrestrial could do the job. You could also sell it to DoD to repurpose it for jungle warfare.
- tyingq 8y agoHeh. I'm curious why there isn't some kind of mechanical trap that works well enough. 12 hours to hunt and catch one snake seems hard.
- deleted 8y ago
- Someone 8y agoSo, finally learned what PEP stands for. It’s Python Elamination Program, which is “not currently accepting new python removal agents” (https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program) I’m mentioning that because that page has a few strong contenders for the “meaningless graph of the year” award. Did you know that the total length of pythons eliminated was over twice the maximum depth of the Grand Canyon or that their weight was less than that of two male African elephants? So, if you take a male American elephants weight of pythons stupid enough to be hunted and place them head to tail, you can make a rope that allows you to abseil the Grand Canyon.
- chrisseaton 8y agoThey’re just trying to bring some colour to their report.
- mikeash 8y agoSurely the tensile strength of python is insufficient for this.
- kartan 8y agoThe solution is really easy. You just need to pay people for each dead python that they bring in. And problem solved.
- empath75 8y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobra_effect
- astazangasta 8y agoIf they can raise a python for less than $50 this will happen.
- lostapathy 8y agoProbably why this program is only limited to licensed snake hunters and not the general population.
- pdpht 8y agoI don't understand the downvotes to the GP, he is clearly referring in jest to this.
- kartan 8y agoThanks for noticing. I'm sorry that you got downvoted for it. My comment was a test, I wanted to see how it played out. Even with such common knowledge topic, I see that there is not enough "tone" in my comment for people to be able to read its intention. This is a similar case to Poe's law. Next time I will try with ";)". I guess that it will clarify the intent of the comment. So, no fault in the people that did not notice. Next time I will do better. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law
- cbreuel 8y agoThe article addresses this, you should read it.
- shurcooL 8y agoI misread this post as having 1843 points and was very puzzled for a few minutes...
- garyclarke27 8y agoThere is a simple natural permanent solution for this problem, just introduce an Apex predator - the majestic Jaguar. Jaguars used to inhabit the southern parts of North America - they seldom attack humans but they will happily eat snakes and alligators. They could restore health to the ecosystem, also make it more interesting, thus also benefiting the tourist industry.
- zeroname 8y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9yruQM1ggc
- distant_hat 8y agoTrue but they have a varied enough diet that snakes may only be marginally affected. To bring down pythons you'd need a more targeted predator, or a virus or bacteria or something that targets pythons alone.
- SllX 8y agoYou don’t want to wipe out pythons. You want to put pressure on their population.
- ecocentrik 8y agoThey're an predatory invasive species that's been clogging up dam gates and killing native predators like alligators. The goal, if it were even possible without causing more harm, would be eradication from that ecosystem.
- hackerman12345 8y agoWhy is there value in keeping the ecosystem in a state we're familiar with? It's not like alligators were "always there" either. Animals migrate, things change, and us ensuring that the animal populations always match what they were in 1995 is hubris.
- tomohawk 8y agoMaybe these guys could learn something from these snake hunters from India: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/sports/2017/01/26/sargent-tribesmen-spearhead-python-removal/97079892/ https://www.floridatoday.com/story/sports/2017/01/26/sargent...
- Zenst 8y agoFor it to be a epidemic issue, I'd be expecting two well trained hunters of pythons to catch more than they did "In the first eight days the snake-catching tribesmen removed 13 of the snakes" as not even two a day. Anybody know the population numbers or the growth rate (the pythons that is) as I'm suspecting that kind of removal rate would only be useful in controlling small area's of land and have little/negligible effect upon the overall population.
- dmckeon 8y agoEstimate of 100,000 pythons in the wild, perhaps starting from an inadvertent release in 1992, and ... > Pythons face few predators here. In the spring, each adult female lays up to 100 eggs. Once her female children reach the age of four, they too begin to breed. How many pythons would need to be caught each year to reduce the population to, say, less than 1,000? I think this infestation may need a different approach.
- mattrp 8y agoI thought a python epidemic could only happen in the bay or nyc!
- rajacombinator 8y agoThey should also pass laws to make it a major crime to harbor these creatures. Eg. 5 years min for possession, 20+ for dealing. Probably won’t deter all the morons, but it will work on some.
- efiecho 8y agoTo you that live in parts of the world that have snakes, do they affect you in any way? There are no snakes where I live, and I'm extremely uncomfortable just thinking about the possibility of one entering your home or seeing one. Imagine cleaning your garage and finding a snake curled up behind some stuff, the state of terror I would be in is out of this world.
- currymj 8y agomost snakes are small and harmless. it’s not any worse than seeing a rat or a lizard. in the US the main snake everyone gets warned about is the coral snake, which has a distinctive pattern and is very poisonous.
- vram22 8y agoHow about rattlesnakes? I thought there are plenty of them, especially in the Western US. Kraits can be deadly in India. I've read that sometimes you cannot even feel their bite, but their venom can kill you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_krait https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_krait The article reminded me of Romulus Whitaker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Whitaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Whitaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Snake_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Snake_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Crocodile_Bank_Trust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_Crocodile_Bank_Trust
- chowells 8y agoThere are rattlesnakes everywhere in areas I've lived all my life. I've never seen a live one. They do not seek human interaction. About the only way you'll get bitten by one is if you reach into a hole one is trying to sleep in such that it can't get away and thinks you're threatening it.
- vram22 8y agoInteresting, thought differently earlier. Good to know.
- mitchtbaum 8y agoDoes anyone have links to more companies selling these animals' skins? Has anyone bought any of these and can share a review? Any other recent updates to what's going on in this market? https://pythonwildman.com/ https://pythonwildman.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20180830211800/https://floridapythoncollection.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20180830211800/https://floridapyt... --- Unfortunately, it looks like their carcasses are toxic. So food cycling them won't work. https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-eat-python-meat https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-... Anyone know how to cost-effectively bioremediate mercury laden materials?
- mitchtbaum 8y agoAlso, I'd like to support stellar Everglades python hunters, on Patreon etc, and it looks like there are several.. I need to go through this later: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=everglades+hunting+python https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=everglades+hunt...
- plg 8y agoI thought this was an article about the Mathworks Inc.
- solidsnack9000 8y agoIt's surprising there aren't special guns or shot being developed for shooting them.
- philistine 8y agoJust switch to Ruby.