Pythons.

[Swamp Hunter]

If you havent heard about the Florida Python Challenge, you must be living under a rock. So far 21 have been killed. This is more than I expected from unexperienced hunters, many from out of state. I call the experimental hunt a success so far and I hope it continues every year... It costs $25 to enter and a Hunting Liscense and Management Area Stamp are not needed to participate.  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fla-sponsors-python-hunt-e...

Over a thousand hunters including Senator Bill Nelson are participating.  It may only put a dent in the population but its a start. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fla-sponsors-python-hunt-e...

[Swamp Hunter]

.http://www.pythonchallenge.org/

[Swamp Hunter]

PETA not happy. http://www.latinospost.com/articles/9962/20130119/florida-python-hu...  They are obviously not thinking about all the small native animals that have been squeezed to death and swallowed whole. 

 

 "This bounty hunt is misguided in the first place, but allowing hunters to decapitate pythons -- who remain alive and in agony and who will writhe for an hour even after their heads have been cut off -- is despicably cruel," PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a public statement.

 

Comments welcome. 

 .

[Amazon Bill]

PETA should go talk to the rabbits, racoons and other small animals on their view of the pythons. I did not see one small mammal at the Flamingo Campground this past holiday. That was the first time in a Florida campground  or on Bear Lake Trail where I did not see a racoon sometime on the trip.  

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

"Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!

You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust." And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared, "Hear me now, I have seen the light! They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!

Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses!

;)

[Swamp Hunter]

The Python numbers seem to be in decline. My guess there is not enough for them to eat.

 

[Swamp Hunter]

As far as the PETA comment. I doubt anything feels any pain long after being decapitated, even carrots.

[Juan Estevez]

So far 50 snakes and a couple of days to go:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-tophat-python-count-...

[Swamp Hunter]

It is necessary.... lol     

[Swamp Hunter]

Python Hunt over.  http://phys.org/news/2013-02-florida-python-yielding-snakes.html

 

"Everybody thought they were going to come out here and be stumbling across pythons," said Ramirez.. ..."A lot of people got frustrated real quick," he said. "Two, three days in the blazing sun. The guys who kept at it were walking 20 miles a day. It's not a walk in the park. I've lost, like, 20 pounds from before it started. My pants are falling down."

 

There are still people that think the Python Hunt was based on hype and speculation. Of course that is completely false. My question to those would be where are all the animals?  What happened to the raccoons, armadillos, and marsh hares? What happened to the whitetail deer in the Stairsteps?