{"id":70,"date":"2009-06-29T10:08:50","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T15:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/?p=70"},"modified":"2013-06-03T22:31:30","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T03:31:30","slug":"the-big-snakes-are-moving-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/field-notes\/the-big-snakes-are-moving-in\/","title":{"rendered":"The big snakes are moving in."},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while, we get a call to remove a snake<\/strong>, and when I we get there we find a huge python<\/strong> or boa constrictor<\/strong>. These are considered “domestics”, and it is always assumed that they were set loose by some irresponsible owner<\/strong> who could no longer feed<\/strong> and take care of<\/strong> the lengthy beast.<\/p>\n

But what if it wasn’t a domestic? What if it were a wild or “feral” snake<\/strong>, which could grow up to 25 feet? What a scary thought.<\/p>\n

It has been estimated that there are 10,000 to 20,000 wild constrictors living in the Everglades<\/strong>, competing for and winning a place in the eco-system<\/strong>.\u00a0 Again, irresponsible owners<\/strong> have been blamed, but what are the odds that there has been a sudden surge in the population of stupid snake owners in south Florida<\/strong>? A more likely scenario, since the time frame seems to fit, is that Hurricane Andrew<\/strong> (1992) released all the animals in pet shops<\/strong> across south Florida<\/strong>, and now 17 years later, the snakes have adapted<\/strong>, probably eating most of the other storm survivors<\/strong> along the way.<\/p>\n

Killed or captured pythons<\/strong> have revealed virtually every warm blooded species available, in their stomachs. There is no shortage of food available to them. They are so adapted and well fed, that they can only now spread North, through Florida and beyond, much like the killer bees<\/strong> did through Mexico<\/strong> from South America<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It has been said by many that the snakes can’t go anywhere, because they cannot survive further North<\/strong>. We’re further North, and we’re finding them. Life adapts to new environments gradually, and moves on. There were snakes and other reptiles long before the last ice age, and they are still here. They lived through it.<\/p>\n

Now there is an experiment<\/strong> going on at the Savannah River Ecology Lab<\/strong>, funded by the University of Georgia<\/strong>, to see if captured everglades Burmese Pythons<\/strong> can survive the bitter cold winters of South Carolina. They have this Jurassic Park mentality<\/strong> that 10 huge snakes surrounded by 400 feet of 8 foot high fence cannot escape, and would soon die in the wild if they did. As John Hammond, the ficticious creator of Jurassic Park said, “That’s why we’re taking extraordinary precautions.<\/strong><\/em> ”\u00a0 And anyone who was entertained by that movie could see, nature has its own agenda.<\/p>\n

Don’t worry, they’ll make it there soon enough. Don’t rush it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while, we get a call to remove a snake, and when I we get there we find a huge python or boa constrictor. These are considered “domestics”, and it is always assumed that they were set loose by some irresponsible owner who could no longer feed and take care of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31,45,72,43,69,17,24,29,12,14,71,37,70,30,6,32],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-field-notes","tag-animal-control","tag-attic-rats","tag-boa-contrictors","tag-control","tag-everglades","tag-exotic","tag-florida","tag-jeff-norris","tag-nuisance-wildlife-relocation","tag-python","tag-pythons","tag-removal","tag-snakes","tag-trapperjeff","tag-wildlife-control","tag-wildlife-removal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.floridawildlifetrapper.com\/flnwr_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}