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Battle to eradicate invasive pythons in Florida achieves milestone
- genter 1y ago> What's startling is those 1,400 snakes didn't come from a statewide culling. They came from a 200-square-mile area in southwestern Florida Or, 0.3% of Florida. One more example of why this planet is fucked.
- southernplaces7 1y agoFucked? You do know that nature has been moving animals around in all sorts of invasive ways for much longer than we've been here to contribute. It's nothing new or globally catastrophic. The pythons are a contextual problem to some species, but otherwise, meh. The world and its ecosystems are quite a bit more robust than some people give them credit for, at least enough that lots of pythons in a new place don't lead to "the planet is fucked".
- conception 1y agoWhen people say “the planet is fucked” what they mean is “the stable systems we rely on for civilization on this planet are fucked”. The planet is a giant ball of nickle and iron with some dust and mites on it. It of course will be fine.
- southernplaces7 1y agoYes but we shouldn't be depending on "stable systems" for civilization on this planet. Firstly, because that's a recipe for a brittle little civilization and secondly, because such stability is in any case a myth. Nature itself is subject to catastrophic transformations by its own dynamics, and among these is the phenomenon of species transplantation and invasion. The supposed equilibrium and "balance" of nature that many environmentalists harp about are fabricated human myth with little bearing on reality. Also, curiously, we could theoretically owe our entire modern existence as living things, to a particularly giant example of nature randomly facilitating the invasive expansion of one type of life at the cost of many others. That's right, i'm talking about the Great Oxidation Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
- hoseja 1y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Pleistocene_extinctions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Pleistocene_extinctions Ain't no civilization done this.
- o11c 1y agoThe problem is that nature abhors monocultures. And when the monoculture collapses, there's no guarantee that actually-useful species usefully survive.
- riffraff 1y agoBut nature doesn't care about usefulness, that's a human concept. The planet will always be fine, it's humankind which is screwing itself.
- sampton 1y agoIt's crazy we are hunting tuna to extinction yet here is perfectly good python meat going to landfill. Florida needs to build a marketing campaign to make wild python a delicacy.
- hinkley 1y agoFeed it to pigs and eat the pigs?
- TZubiri 1y agoThat doesn't get rid of the pigs and is exactly how mercury accumuation works, it would even exacerbate the process.
- rocketpastsix 1y agoPythons in SW Florida are found to have dangerously high levels of mercury[0] so it may not be as perfectly good as hoped for. [0]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31256202/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31256202/
- wnevets 1y agoIsn't that also true for tuna?
- sfilmeyer 1y ago>dangerously high levels of mercury All the better for a tuna substitute! More seriously, from your article >4.86 mg/kg in liver tissue from a snake that was 4.7 m long but overall averaged 0.12 ± 0.19 mg/kg in tail tip Tuna looks like it's about 0.39 mg/kg, so the liver tissue is suuuuper high but the tail tip is just normal high mercury.
- vintermann 1y agoEating predator livers is a bad idea in any case.
- pavelstoev 1y agoThis story is dear to my heart. Let me tell you why - this is the tale of how my wife of 15 years, bless her heart, an occasional unstable genius, proposed a startlingly effective method for eradicating these invasive pythons. She slammed her coffee cup down one morning with the conviction of an Old Testament prophet and declared: “Exploding rabbits.” “Excuse me?” I said, wiping marmalade off my chin. “Exploding. Rabbits. Stuff ‘em with quarter pound of C4, or maybe just enough tannerite to surprise the neighbors but not call down the FAA, and set them loose in the Everglades. Pythons love rabbits. Boom. Problem solved. You’re welcome, America.” Now I’ve heard my share of madcap schemes. Once she tried to compost credit card offers. But this time she looked me square in the eye with the righteous glow of a woman who had just solved two ecological crises and accidentally founded a billion-dollar startup in the process. “We’ll call it Hare Trigger™,” she added, deadpan. “It’s got product-market fit and explosive growth potential.” She even sketched out a logo involving a jackrabbit with aviator goggles and a plunger. I asked if this might attract some sort of federal attention. “Good,” she said. “That’s called buzz. Besides, the pythons started it.” And just like that, I found myself wondering how far true it is that behind every successful man stands an even more genius woman. Waiting for Elon to offer Series A.
- nkrisc 1y agoWhy would they explode?
- nine_k 1y agoTannerire, when crushed, initiates a small explosion, which triggers the C4. When a python swallows a rabbit, it then crushes the rabbit's body with its powerful muscles, to help the digestion. This is when the explosion would happen. This is my best understanding. I have no idea where inside a rabbit there would be room enough for the C4 and tannerite, and how to put it inside enough rabbits.
- nkrisc 1y agoFrom what I’ve read a .22 caliber bullet or heavier is necessary to ignite tannerite. I’m not a herpetologist, nor a firearms expert, but I have my doubts that a python ingesting prey produces similar forces as a .22 striking a target, at least in terms of force per area.
- anadem 1y agoThat headline sounds encouraging, but the actual info is anything but.
- riffraff 1y agoWell, they do say it's taking longer for the tracked males to find mates, so that is encouraging. Although it also says the range has expanded so who knows.
- watersb 1y agohttps://theonion.com/scientists-warn-florida-will-be-under-6-feet-of-snakes-1845392776/ https://theonion.com/scientists-warn-florida-will-be-under-6...
- nickledave 1y agoI approve of this story as a Florida boy and as a Pythonista
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- jeffrallen 1y agoMeanwhile, the battle to eradicate Python 2 continues.
- hoseja 1y ago"20 tons of the snakes" Really... striking? bizzare? ...turn of phrase. It makes sense I guess, just really caught my attention.