Why has the state of Florida gone to war against Pythons in the Everglades?
In February, a group of tourists at the Pa-hay-okee Overlook in Florida’s Everglades National Park stumbled upon a battle between an alligator and a python. The stunned onlookers watched as the snake wrapped itself around the alligator, only to see its opponent counter by rolling over and grabbing the snake in its mouth and swimming off with the snake in its jaw. It was not the first such battle. In January of last year, a horde of tourists watched another epic contest between an alligator and a python at the park’s Anhinga Trail. After more than 24 hours in the jaws of the alligator, that snake broke free and moved off into the marsh. For now, the alligators in the Florida Everglades are holding their ground against the invading snakes. But the odds may be changing. The park is being overrun with Burmese pythons, one of the world’s largest snakes. These pythons can grow to be more than 20 feet (6 meters) long in their natural habitat in Southeast Asia. The Burmese python is just one o
Police are expected to bring charges against the owner of a pet python that strangled a 2-year-old Florida girl in her crib, killing her. A Sumter County Sheriffs employee, who is not authorized to speak about the case, told FOXNews.com that charges are coming but wouldn’t elaborate because investigators still are working on the specifics. The charges likely won’t be filed on Thursday. Shaiunna Hare died early Wednesday morning after being attacked by the snake, which belonged to her mother’s boyfriend and escaped from its aquarium, deputies said. The little girl was killed by the 8-foot, 5-inch Burmese python as she slept after it got out of its tank in another room of the house, according to Sumter County Sheriffs Lt. Bobby Caruthers. An autopsy released Thursday determined that the child died by asphyxiation. The aquarium didn’t have a lock as required by law, Caruthers told FOX News Thursday. Jaren Ashley Hare, 21, and Shaiunna shared
So begins the first day for Florida’s first officially designated python posse. The population of these voracious non-native snakes has exploded so frighteningly in this decade — as many as 150,000 are estimated to be crawling through the Everglades today and moving north — that the state has launched a hunting offensive to eradicate them before they in turn wipe out whole endangered species native to the peninsula, like wood storks and white-tailed deer. Or before they become a human threat: the python problem took a tragic turn this month when a two-year-old girl was strangled to death in her crib by a 9-ft python illegally kept as a pet in her house near Orlando. Sources: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0%2C8599%2C1911558%2C00.
