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The category 5 winds flattened the town of Homestead, including hatcheries and pet dealers where the new-borns were incubated in small plastic food storage cups and bowls in exposed areas. The babies are thought to have been blown into the neighbouring Everglades where survivors started breeding. Most pythons caught or found dead there in recent years had very similar DNA, bolstering the theory.
More than 600 people have signed up for the Python Challenge, according to Carli Segelson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which organized the event. A cash prize goes to the hunter who captures -- dead or alive -- the most Burmese pythons, as well as one for the longest one. Why? Because the Burmese python, which can be as large as 23 feet long and weigh up to 200 pounds, doesn't belong in the Everglades, in Florida -- or even in this hemisphere for that matter. The native Southeast Asian snake is "wreaking havoc on one of America's most beautiful, treasured and naturally bountiful ecosystems," U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt said of the 1.5-million-acre Everglades National Park in a 2012 report. "Right now, the only hope to halt further python invasion into new areas is swift, decisive and deliberate human action." But that is no easy feat; the unwelcome guests are thriving in the habitat and climate provided by the Everglades.
originally posted by: eXia7
I'm pretty sure a lot of the python problem is because people discard them into the everglades when they get tired of them. They don't have a real natural predator, so they can flourish.
People shouldn't be able to own large reptiles as pets. Sure, have a corn snake cool, but you don't need a damn snake that can eat a full grown man.
originally posted by: Lurker1
This is VERY OLD NEWS.
originally posted by: putnam6
I'm sure stuff like that happened, also read that how there are wild monkeys too.
But people have been releasing pythons on purpose or accident for years in Florida.
They get them they get too big and they release them. and its a perfect habitat to grow and breed, and the little ones have less natural predators.
originally posted by: NightSkyeB4Dawn
a reply to: the owlbear
Yeap. I live in the woods and it is not odd for us to have a chimp sighting every now and again.
I almost freaked out when I was refilling my bird feeder and found myself suddenly shadowed by an object in the sky above me that seemed at the moment to be a very low flying airplane, but it turned out to be an owl. I never knew owls got that big.
We have Jesus Lizards that look like mini dinosaurs. Florida is a sister to Australia. Don't be surprised at anything you find down here.