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The Invasion of Giant Pythons Threatening Florida
- inflatableDodo 7y agoI'm betting on Florida.
- jxramos 7y ago"...and their ability to extend their windpipe, snorkel-like, outside their mouths, so they can breathe while their mouths are entirely occupied with swallowing" this is a pretty incredible fact about pythons!
- mkl 7y agoThere's video here: https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/how-snake-breathes-while-eating-huge-meals/3152640/ https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/how-snake-breathe...
- siphon22 7y agoWho would win? A hundred giant pythons or 1 Florida Man?
- darkpuma 7y agoI think even one on one, a sufficiently large constrictor could take down (asphyxiate, if not eat) a full sized floridian. But that's not accounting for tool use, which changes the matter completely.
- siphon22 7y agoOne should not underestimate Florida Man :-)
- jessaustin 7y agoNot least because underestimating is so very much more difficult than overestimating him.
- nickserv 7y agoThe Burmese pythons in the 'glades have been known to eat alligators. If you've never seen a large constrictor grab prey it's easy to dismiss them as slow and easily avoidable. But these strike with incredible speed, and can wrap themselves completely around their prey in a second or two. Then the squeezing starts... A knife or a gun is only helpful if you can reach it and use it quickly enough. But, when not hungry, especially if digesting a large meal, they tend to hide, don't really move and are pretty much harmless. So it really depends if the snake is in hunting mode or not.
- Fjolsvith 7y agoThe trick is to not look like food.
- savant_penguin 7y agopip uninstall Florida
- _audakel 7y agoapt-get remove python
- IgorPartola 7y agoJust install anaconda. What could go wrong?
- colinchartier 7y agofloridaman -R python
- youeseh 7y agoAre they edible? I'll answer my own question: https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-eat-python-meat https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-... No, no you can't because Burmese pythons have a very high mercury content.
- MrBuddyCasino 7y agoWow. Yeah, don’t eat those: “For some reason, the pythons that are coming out of here, they have mercury concentrations higher than mine waste, a mercury mine,” said Everglades superintendent Dan Kimball. “According to (USGS scientist Dave Krabbenhoft), they’ve never found anything that has this high of mercury levels that’s still alive. It is amazing.”
- baxtr 7y agoSounds like a great way to collect Mercury in your local neighborhood
- MrBuddyCasino 7y agoI wonder where its all coming from. Just bio-accumulation? But yeah sounds like a nice way to remove some mercury from your local ecosystem. Then sell it as "snake silver" to esoterically leaning folks.
- baxtr 7y agoNice business idea! Now the only thing we need are some giant pythons...
- xbdobd 7y agoBut they make great handbags. Get Prada to come over and start a proper slaughter!
- marcosdumay 7y agoI wonder what they are eating.
- jxramos 7y agoI'm dreaming of a remote game where players fly a fleet of drones to go hunt for pythons in the everglades.
- spydum 7y agoThis is close to reality for wild boars, but due to how sneaky pythons are - prob not really practical.
- jxramos 7y agoSource please. I know there's a ton of late night hunts with infrared scopes where people snipe boars, but that's in person. Plenty of such content on YouTube. Is there a remote version of the hunt going on someplace?
- hownottowrite 7y agoJust search for boar drone hunt and you’ll see plenty of examples.
- keenmaster 7y agoAn infrared camera drone with AI should be able to identify giant pythons and other invasive species. Someone make it.
- tshanmu 7y agoThere was a programme where they got the Irula tribe (with help from the reptile man - Rom Whitaker[2]) from India to trap the pythons, which was touted to be a success as well[1]. Not sure what happened to it? [1] https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article128233064.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article12... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Whitaker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romulus_Whitaker
- indogooner 7y agoDoes not seem like it was remotely successful. From [1] - "Probably the most audacious effort came last year when two renowned snake catchers from India’s mountain-dwelling Irula tribe chanted their way across the Everglades for two months. They bagged 33 pythons. But that figure, like the 1,000-plus snakes killed to date in civilian hunting programmes, is a drop in the ocean." [1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/25/snakes-florida-hybrid-pythons-super-breed-threat-danger https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/25/snakes-flori...
- ars 7y agoAttach small bombs designed to go off only when squeezed or digested to rabbits and set them loose. (Include radio trackers.)
- tsmarsh 7y agoI think this is how Florida wanted to go. Its its time.
- cutler 7y agoThere have been many reports of bloat recently in Python. Now we have hard evidence.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sorokod 7y agoI dislike the title of this post which is different from the title of the article it links to. Pythons are not evil and they are not good, and a python definitely doesn't invade anything. A bunch of morones with more money then sense and an infantile itch to scratch, decided that importing predators from a different continent is s good idea and now the state of Florida is facing the consequences. Not a snappy headline, but this is what this is.
- acollins1331 7y agoOr maybe they're just using terminology that has been used for hundreds of years to talk about invasive species.
- Tomte 7y ago<title>The Invasion of Giant Pythons Threatening Florida | Science | Smithsonian</title> You're mistaken. The top heading differs from the title, but that's not unusual.
- simonhamp 7y agoMy wife and I have just done a great little tour of an eastern part of the Everglades from Gator Park, and the airboat captain talked about the python problem. There were audible gasps when he mentioned that it’s thought the pythons are responsible for a 90% reduction in indigenous species over the past 20 years. When I asked him what they’re doing about the problem, he didn’t seem to know much, so this article is both very timely and hugely enlightening! It also suggests that this topic needs a lot more awareness.
- Merrill 7y agoI was involved in management of a small natural preserve. One of the activities was to control some of the more pestilential invasive species, such as Oriental bittersweet. But without a huge expensive effort, invasives really can't be eradicated or even very well controlled. I'd estimate that upwards of a fourth of the plant mass was invasive species, from allianthus to wisteria. In the end, I decided it didn't really matter - that these new species were simply doing what all organisms do, which is to compete to survive and reproduce. The fact that they are doing so in a new ecological setting is just what evolution predicts.
- brownbat 7y agoInteresting point. Outside/In Radio has a few episodes you might like, one series on trying to turn invasive species into culinary delicacies, to put pressure back on those populations: http://outsideinradio.org/shows/2018/7/5/molto-moleche http://outsideinradio.org/shows/2018/7/5/molto-moleche Also, I found thought provoking this discussion of how some species are generalists, and some are specialists, and how Turkey vultures will probably inherit the Earth: http://outsideinradio.org/shows/ep51 http://outsideinradio.org/shows/ep51
- kijin 7y agoAmericans don't seem to be particularly fond of eating unfamiliar animals. Convince the Chinese that a certain species is good for health or improves vigor, on the other hand, and the species in question will become virtually extinct in no time. See rhino horns and shark's fins.
- banku_brougham 7y agoA little care could have made this statement seem less.. inconsiderate.
- kijin 7y agoI thought about that for a minute before I hit "reply", but decided "fuck it." Why try to sugarcoat an ecologically disastrous cultural practice in the name of sensitivity? Besides, ethnically I'm much closer to Chinese than American if that adds any context.
- onetimemanytime 7y agounleash the robots. Otherwise it's impossible, they reproduce like there's no tomorrow and they have no natural predators. Anything that harms them probably ruins the environment for others
- BurningFrog 7y agoSo what will happen is a new ecological balance will develop. The snakes will hit the limit of their expansion. The prey animals will develop ways to avoid the snakes. The area will be forever changed, but just as alive as it was.
- everdrive 7y agoBut not really because people will keep changing things at a pace greater than natural selection and evolution.
- BurningFrog 7y agoProbably. This will in turn evolve a fauna that is well adapted to change.
- nakedrobot2 7y agothis seems like an interesting project for genetic engineering - to create pythons which breed only sterile pythons...?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dillonmckay 7y agoI read this article in the magazine, and towards the end, there is a mention of two Pythons found alive in the Gulf of Mexico, at least 5 miles from shore.
- lonnyk 7y agoI may be misunderstanding something you’re saying, but this is also in the online article...
- dillonmckay 7y agoI did not read the online article, so I did not want to assume the content was identical. Regardless, pythons living in saltwater off the coast of Florida, has been added to my list of fears.
- foxyv 7y agoIn addition, you can't eat the suckers because they accumulate mercury! https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-eat-python-meat https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-...