Pythons

This topic has emerged in other threads, I thought I would start a Python thread.

I'll start off by asking these questions:

What threat level do these preditors pose to campers in ENP? We are potentially on their menu, what precautions should we be taking?

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Permalink Reply by daniel on April 11, 2013 at 2:19am

hi chris,

we saw the big one kind of on the shoulder of one of the roads... looked like a speed bump. we were snaking, specifically... but we were mostly seeing the usual... till we saw the big one... we pulled the truck onto it, pinned it, and whacked it.

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Hunter on May 20, 2013 at 6:20pm

18 foot Python killed. http://www.news-press.com/article/20130520/ENT13/130520017/0/SPORTS...

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Hunter on May 26, 2013 at 3:08am

Python hunters find gold medallion in Everglades. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/5/prweb10749118.htm

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Permalink Reply by yakmaster on June 30, 2013 at 5:43pm

What does a python eat & what happens to it, when it just don't flow right is the subject of Skip Snow's analysis in the photo below:

In the picture Skip Snow, Everglades National Park's Wildlife Biologist, in the process of evaluating a ~4 ft long, ~6 in diameter "mass" taken out of the intestine of a 15 ft python recently captured in the Park. Upon capture, Skip thought the python may have somehow ingested a log, but during the necropsy, found this hardened "mass" in the intestine. He's currently in the process of evaluating it by taking cores and has found, among other things, multiple deer and feral pig hoofs. This python was clearly in a state of major constipation ...

Sometimes too much is too much, even for a python

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Permalink Reply by Swamp Hunter on July 1, 2013 at 2:46pm

For at least 16 million years, there have been no snakes in Florida large enough to prey on medium-sized mammals. I hope whitetail deer can learn to smell a python in less than a decade.