Burmse Pythons

I don't think a bounty will do it.

"the Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades watershed-the core Everglades system-covers about 9,000 square miles in a single hydrologic unit". From:

Size and Interconnectedness | Friends of the Everglades Size and ...

That's 9,000 square miles of ideal habitat for the snakes to live in. Most of it is impenetrable swamps.

Like Fire Ants and Africanized bees we're stuck with these predators.

The same conditions apply to alligators,yet they were placed on an endangered species list due to over harvesting.

Now harvesting alligators is controlled by issuing hunting tags.

If the money is there, the hunters will come.

If there was a market of fire ants,they too would become rare and scarce.Perhaps $100 a ton? Technology would develop to harvest and separate the ants from the sand and debris,to compact and bale them or to put them on a string if that was what was required.

Sadly,money is the name of the game.

I don't think they are in the same league.

Read News Release

Python hunting is in it's infancy right now.No one has any experience in hunting them.A amateur hunter will never even see a wild turkey,much less kill one.Same with deer,elk, or any other prey.If enough $$$ are held out, hunters will learn when,where and how to trap or shoot them.The inefficient methods will be weeded out.My understanding of the link you provided was anyone who wanted to hunt could hunt.No wonder such a poor harvest.

An air boat is almost certain to be required,and perhaps infrared cameras or uv lighting will reveal them, like uv does to scorpions,hunting them at night may be the key.Or caging a female in estrus to attract males.Or perhaps an artificial female scent.

There are many unexplored methods yet to be tried.

There are probably many techniques that could improve the efficiency of hunting pythons in the Everglades. But just because improvements can be made, doesn't mean that hunting will become effective enough to eradicate the problem.

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Your comparison with gators is thought provoking. I think the important difference include:

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-Alligators are more active than pythons. Alligators often stalk prey, while pythons typically wait to ambush.

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- Alligators are typically in the water or within 100 ft or so of water, and make easily seen paths when on land. Water is generally navigable by hunters without too much trouble in the right type of boat (meaning they can bring equipment and provisions.

Pythons can swim, and are often not far from water, but pythons usually hide in thick underbrush, or sometimes in trees. A python can quickly move into thicket that human could only move slowly through.

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-Alligators hunt live prey, but are attracted to the smell of rotting meat. Alligators will even jump from the water to grab meat/bait on elevated hooks (providing hunters a way to catch only gators of at least a minimum size). Pythons are not attracted to rotting meat and typically only eat live birds and mammals, usually on the land, though exceptions have been noted including pythons feeding on alligators.

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I suspect those difference will be sufficient to make the python problem intractable so long as south Florida doesn't experience any hard freezes. A hard freeze that far south would be weird, but it would probably decimate the tropical species.

Re: Burmese Pythons
How many deer do you think would be killed with hundreds of amateur hunters running willy nilly through the swamps and woods looking for them,talking on their cellphones,putting vibes in the ground?
The differences between gators and pythons are known and access can be addressed with air boats,hydrofoils and the like.
A snake that large must have a heat signature,slightly above ambient to survive the night.That would be when they are most visible to infrared.Mini quad-rotors with infrared cameras could be used for surveying large areas,and providing GPS
coordinates to the hunters. Yes,I am talking hi tek,but hey!That's my name.
If the right amount of money is there, the hunters will come,and they will succeed.
A snake trap made of a PVC pipe with forward angled flexible teeth,increasing in length,and reducing the diameter along the tubes length and terminating in a cage:a one way street for Pythons.Encircle an area with these traps.The snakes will have to leave sometime.
See? Simple to a HiTekrednek
How hard do miners work to pan gold,or opals,or diamonds? Yes,I know that is a whole order of magnitude or more above a bounty price,but at $10 each, if a successful hunter could bag 100 a day,that is worth taking home.Even half that would pay all overhead and give a good profit.
It would not take long to learn all the tricks of the Python,and put the problem to rest.The fast learners will prevail,and they might even want to preserve a few for job security.

100 a day?

Not ever. Never.

Did you read the link Lyn provided above?

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Just to highlight: over 1300 competed contest to capture the most and the biggest pythons in the Everglades over a 30 day period in 2013 (so the technology was available). Those 1300 people caught a total of 68 pythons over the 30 day period. The article lists $5000 dollars in prizes paid....which, for 68 pythons is substantially above (more than 7 times) the $10 per python payout you suggest.

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That equates to about 0.0014 pythons per person-day.....or about 700 days for the average hunter in this contest to catch one python. The average python hunter would need to increase their catch rate by more than 70,000 times to get to 100 per day.

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Those people had the technology available today and were enticed by prizes that equated to more than 70$ per python.

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Even the luckiest/most skilled hunter brought in 18 pythons. The other hunter receiving a prize for number captured brought in 5 pythons. Remember this is over a 30 day period, and they each received $1500 for their respective catches.

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100 per day is pure fantasy. Even for one hunter, even with today's technology and the best luck to bring in 10 in a day would be miraculous, certainly not something you could plan on to combat a problem.....certainly not for $10 per kill.

Which,IMHO proves that there were only 2 real hunters in the group of

1300+participants.

The remainder probably made it harder for the real hunters by scaring away the prey.

Just because the technology was available, did not mean that they used it.

How many used quadrotors with infrared at night?

How many used females in estrus to attract males to a concentrated area.

I am sure they used air boats,but without definite coordinates,and holding a certain

standoff distance,they probably scared more away than could be numbered.

This is really merely academic,because Florida is never going to put up the money for

a large term bounty hunt.By long term, I mean permanent.

OOPS! Never say Never!

I think they're going about it all wrong.

Personally, I would trap and kill them by providing them with an easy food source.

It would be cheap too...

Just use land based cages and floating rafts with cages on them, dotted throughout the everglades, with live chickens in them. All that would have to be done, is to design a cage that the snakes could get into, but not out of. Easy.

If not for PETA, it would also be a nice way to get rid of feral cats.

I believe that neither you nor HTRN really grasps the scope of 9,000 square miles of ideal habitat for the snakes to live in. It IS NOT ideal for humans.

That is a larger area than either New Jersey or Conneticate or Delaware or Rhode island, and as big as Vermont or New Hampshire.

It sounds like you and HTRN should team up for the 2014 Python Challenge and walk with $5000+ in prize money for a couple days of fun.

Can we use nukes?

I haven't seen any prohibition.

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(The carcasses still need to be brought in to be judged. The official location for judging probably needs to remain habitable throughout the competition. Most of the people running and judging the show probably need to remain alive and able throughout the competition.... So mind the blast area/fall out.)

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How many nukes do you think you'll be able to pony up to secure that $5,000 prize?

There is the problem.People think they can just waltz right in and pick them up.

It will take a while to study and learn the ways of the Python.

As far as being inhospitible for humans, the Oceola lived there for thousands of years,before the Europeans almost made them extinct.If this alien species had invaded in the days of the Indians,they would be a much prized meat and skin source.

Urbanites think no cell phone service is roughing it,and no running water,indoor plumbing,or toilet paper is intolerable.And having to hunt and dress your own meat? Terrible,just terrible!

I will admit,I have gotten soft over the years,and civilization is good to the old bones,especially at night,in winter. I do know,however, a few younger local hunters that would be right at home in the swamp,but even they would not be naive enough to think they could go into a strange environment after a new prey,without a lot of preparation and study of the creature's habits.

I do not expect everyone to agree with me,but as they say, opinions are what makes horse races.

Before attempting to kill them, they should tag a bunch of them and figure out where they hang out. Might as well give the hunters an advantage.

If the meat's any good, they should contain them and raise them for food and skins.

High mercury levels in the meat has resulted in recommendations against consumption.

So have you registered for the 2014 Python Challenge?

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It should be an easy $2500+ for a couple days vacation flying essence-of-python-estrus-wafting, infrared-sensing, quad-copters around south Florida.

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You'd probably be safe doubling last years record....but 40 pythons would be better. Shouldn't take you more than 4 days, right?

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Keep us informed. Post some pics.

Have they even bothered to ban ownership of exotic snakes?

I saw that show on TV about how they're taking over, and it looks like a lot of them are still escaping from people's homes...along with Boa Constrictors, and other non-native species.

I'm not big on government bans, but people have become so damned stupid, that sometimes they are necessary.

raise their taxes, they'll move to Georgia

For the same reason that it is so difficult to eradicate Japanese Knotweed and American Pennywort from the UK's navigable waterways and that the last stronghold of the Red Squirrel is the Isle of Wight because the Grey has pervaded everywhere else: because it's extraordinarily difficult to achieve and requires an awful lot of effort.