JupiterSunsation
New member
I think the Keys have lost their luster years ago due to poor development/ overpopulation as well as environmental destruction but this just adds another issue for the locals.......
When snakes invade, call the wranglers
By CAMMY CLARK
The Miami Herald
Sunday, February 01, 2009
KEY LARGO — In Python Catching 101, a few principles are paramount: Stay out of strike range. Don't let a 12-footer wrap around your body and squeeze.
And beware of gushing snake poop — a harmless, but smelly, reptile defense mechanism, instructor Jeffrey Fobb warned a group of wanna-be snake catchers.
Armed with the vital new information — plus thick gloves, metal hooks to keep snakes at bay and a blanket to throw over the snakes' heads — a dozen mostly fearless students last week learned how to capture the enormous natives of Southeast Asia that have begun invading the Florida Keys.
"As far as I know, this is the first class that teaches python wrangling, at least in Florida," said Alison Higgins, land conservation manager with the Nature Conservancy.
The students joined the "Python Patrol," a rapid response program created by the nonprofit conservation organization, working with government agencies, to stop some of the world's largest snakes from continuing their invasion south into the Keys, where they could wreak havoc on wildlife as they have in the Everglades.
"We're concerned for the number of endangered species in the Keys, especially the Key Largo cottonmouse and Key Largo woodrat, whose population numbers are very low," said Art Roybal, a senior biologist at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "Small mammals like that can be tasty items to a large snake, like a popcorn snack."
The Python Patrol was formed in 2008 after seven Burmese pythons were found in Key Largo the year before. Pythons had been found in the Keys since the 1980s, but they were thought to be pets that escaped or were let loose.
GROWING PROBLEM
The seven in 2007 were different. Wildlife groups believe they bred in the wild and may have come from the nearby Everglades, over land or by swimming.
The first of the seven was discovered by researchers from Scotland's University of St. Andrews who were tracking a Key Largo woodrat fitted with a radio-transmitter collar. The signal brought them to a seven-foot python, basking in the sun. A necropsy revealed the collared woodrat, and one other, in the snake's belly.
"When the pythons came at us fast and furious — bam, bam, bam — we needed to do something," Higgins said.
The Python Patrol also has an "Eyes and Ears Team" of safety officers, meter readers, mail carriers, road crews and landscapers trained to identify pythons, which can grow to 23 feet, weigh up to 200 pounds and live for 25 years. Any sightings are called into the python hotline: 1-888-IVE-GOT-1.
"Our goal is, the first time you see a non-native snake is the last time," Higgins said.
Anyone who calls in a sighting is asked to keep visual contact with the snake while a dispatcher at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office calls the volunteer snake catchers. Rule of thumb: A snake of 10 feet or longer requires backup.
THE BOOT CAMP
The Nature Conservancy is training 25 responders to cover the islands from Key Largo to Key West. This was the second class, held at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo.
Fobb, a lieutenant with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom Response Team, brought several different types of pythons and an anaconda for his class of wildlife officers, aqueduct employees and mosquito-control workers to practice capturing and bagging.
"I try to bring ones with poor dispositions," Fobb said. "You don't want to give people an unrealistic idea of what to expect when you grab a snake in the wild."
In a dirt parking lot, Fobb made it look easy, straddling one python from behind and slowly inching closer until he could grab it behind the neck.
"There is no exact right way to catch them," he said. "But it's much better to be pooed on than bitten."
The key, Fobb said, is to wear them out. Techniques include using long metal hooks to keep the head from striking, throwing a blanket over the head to act as a blinder and using a second person to distract the snake.
Cindy Fury of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service took her turn, easily grabbing a 12-foot python behind the neck. The battle wasn't over. It wrapped around her legs with such force she couldn't move.
Fury laughed as three people came to her aid, but conceded: "Out there by myself, I would worry a little more."
Tony Emtiaz, aquarium curator at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, was the lone casualty. He was bitten on the fingers, through gloves, while trying to bag one.
"Hey, it goes with the territory," Emtiaz said. "I've been bit by morays (eels), which were much worse."
Pythons are not venomous, but their bites can cause infection, Fobb said.
"After attending here, I feel pretty comfortable if I ran into one of these guys in the woods," said Jerry Curtis of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control. "Before, I probably would have panicked."
The catchers don't kill the snakes, but they are later euthanized for research by Everglades scientists.
NEED FOR VIGILANCE
Only three Burmese pythons have been found in the Keys in the past year, but the threat will never be over with the proximity of the Everglades, where eradication is a lost cause, said biologist Ron Rozar of the U.S. Geological Service, which set up a python project last year in the Keys.
"All it takes is a few pregnant females to make it here," Rozar said. "They can lay up to 100 eggs, and you get a pretty high hatchling rate."
The Python Patrol has led to one capture: an 11-foot boa constrictor on Big Pine Key last month. It was believed to be an escaped or let-loose pet.
'People think: 'What's one pet snake let loose in a big wild place?' " Higgins said. "But that's how the problem began in the first place."
When snakes invade, call the wranglers
By CAMMY CLARK
The Miami Herald
Sunday, February 01, 2009
KEY LARGO — In Python Catching 101, a few principles are paramount: Stay out of strike range. Don't let a 12-footer wrap around your body and squeeze.
And beware of gushing snake poop — a harmless, but smelly, reptile defense mechanism, instructor Jeffrey Fobb warned a group of wanna-be snake catchers.
Armed with the vital new information — plus thick gloves, metal hooks to keep snakes at bay and a blanket to throw over the snakes' heads — a dozen mostly fearless students last week learned how to capture the enormous natives of Southeast Asia that have begun invading the Florida Keys.
"As far as I know, this is the first class that teaches python wrangling, at least in Florida," said Alison Higgins, land conservation manager with the Nature Conservancy.
The students joined the "Python Patrol," a rapid response program created by the nonprofit conservation organization, working with government agencies, to stop some of the world's largest snakes from continuing their invasion south into the Keys, where they could wreak havoc on wildlife as they have in the Everglades.
"We're concerned for the number of endangered species in the Keys, especially the Key Largo cottonmouse and Key Largo woodrat, whose population numbers are very low," said Art Roybal, a senior biologist at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "Small mammals like that can be tasty items to a large snake, like a popcorn snack."
The Python Patrol was formed in 2008 after seven Burmese pythons were found in Key Largo the year before. Pythons had been found in the Keys since the 1980s, but they were thought to be pets that escaped or were let loose.
GROWING PROBLEM
The seven in 2007 were different. Wildlife groups believe they bred in the wild and may have come from the nearby Everglades, over land or by swimming.
The first of the seven was discovered by researchers from Scotland's University of St. Andrews who were tracking a Key Largo woodrat fitted with a radio-transmitter collar. The signal brought them to a seven-foot python, basking in the sun. A necropsy revealed the collared woodrat, and one other, in the snake's belly.
"When the pythons came at us fast and furious — bam, bam, bam — we needed to do something," Higgins said.
The Python Patrol also has an "Eyes and Ears Team" of safety officers, meter readers, mail carriers, road crews and landscapers trained to identify pythons, which can grow to 23 feet, weigh up to 200 pounds and live for 25 years. Any sightings are called into the python hotline: 1-888-IVE-GOT-1.
"Our goal is, the first time you see a non-native snake is the last time," Higgins said.
Anyone who calls in a sighting is asked to keep visual contact with the snake while a dispatcher at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office calls the volunteer snake catchers. Rule of thumb: A snake of 10 feet or longer requires backup.
THE BOOT CAMP
The Nature Conservancy is training 25 responders to cover the islands from Key Largo to Key West. This was the second class, held at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo.
Fobb, a lieutenant with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom Response Team, brought several different types of pythons and an anaconda for his class of wildlife officers, aqueduct employees and mosquito-control workers to practice capturing and bagging.
"I try to bring ones with poor dispositions," Fobb said. "You don't want to give people an unrealistic idea of what to expect when you grab a snake in the wild."
In a dirt parking lot, Fobb made it look easy, straddling one python from behind and slowly inching closer until he could grab it behind the neck.
"There is no exact right way to catch them," he said. "But it's much better to be pooed on than bitten."
The key, Fobb said, is to wear them out. Techniques include using long metal hooks to keep the head from striking, throwing a blanket over the head to act as a blinder and using a second person to distract the snake.
Cindy Fury of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service took her turn, easily grabbing a 12-foot python behind the neck. The battle wasn't over. It wrapped around her legs with such force she couldn't move.
Fury laughed as three people came to her aid, but conceded: "Out there by myself, I would worry a little more."
Tony Emtiaz, aquarium curator at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, was the lone casualty. He was bitten on the fingers, through gloves, while trying to bag one.
"Hey, it goes with the territory," Emtiaz said. "I've been bit by morays (eels), which were much worse."
Pythons are not venomous, but their bites can cause infection, Fobb said.
"After attending here, I feel pretty comfortable if I ran into one of these guys in the woods," said Jerry Curtis of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control. "Before, I probably would have panicked."
The catchers don't kill the snakes, but they are later euthanized for research by Everglades scientists.
NEED FOR VIGILANCE
Only three Burmese pythons have been found in the Keys in the past year, but the threat will never be over with the proximity of the Everglades, where eradication is a lost cause, said biologist Ron Rozar of the U.S. Geological Service, which set up a python project last year in the Keys.
"All it takes is a few pregnant females to make it here," Rozar said. "They can lay up to 100 eggs, and you get a pretty high hatchling rate."
The Python Patrol has led to one capture: an 11-foot boa constrictor on Big Pine Key last month. It was believed to be an escaped or let-loose pet.
'People think: 'What's one pet snake let loose in a big wild place?' " Higgins said. "But that's how the problem began in the first place."
