Are Burmese Pythons Killing YOUR Deer?

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It's a jungle down here.

 

All I can say is wow!

 

Creepy. I'll take my chances with the wolves

 

you can say that again there was a 10ft one found dead here near Jax in one of the swamps. It is really creepy.

 

True Story.

About 6 years ago, my older brother and I took a late winter road trip to Florida to do some bass fishing at Lake Okeechobee. We spent two days on the lake and then drove south to Homestead to meet a good friend of his, who invited us down and wanted to take us around to see the sites. We hit the Everglades, and gater farms around Homestead, then spent 4 days in the Florida Keys.

We drove down through the Everglades all the way to a place called Flamingo, on the very southern tip of Florida. From there, we got hooked up with an air boat tour guide. This guy took us up, through some nasty looking swamp, showing us gaters, birds, fish, etc. Really cool experience.

All of a sudden, the guy slams the breaks on the boat, backs up to the bank, grabs a small shotgun and jumps off. There was a pretty steep bank there and he crawled up the bank and over it. Bang! Bang!. He then yells for us to climb the bank if we wanted to see a 12ft python he just killed. My brother, who hates snakes, stayed on the boat. I had to see this thing. Upon getting to the top of the bank, I was greeted by a squirming, rolling, snake. The dude shot it twice in the head region, it was obviously dead, but the nerves were still alive and well.

To think that monster snakes like this were all over the place down there is scary. The tour guide said that the park service instructed anyone in the "glades" or surrounding areas to kill them on sight if they can. They are killing everything down there. That was the only one we saw, but there were pictures at the main visitors center of park service personnel with snakes they found and killed, some were absolutely huge, like the one pictured in this article.

If you've never been to south Florida, its pretty amazing. We fished in canals around Homestead and saw many tropical fish, like the ones you see in your average aquarium, in the wild. They're a problem too. People don't want their fish tank anymore and just dump them in the canals, where the fish either get eaten or grow to very large sizes. I saw an angel fish, you know, the silver guys with the black vertical bars we see at the pet store. That thing was at least a foot long.

Crazy stuff down there.

 

Yep, Welcome to Florida!

 

Who you telling....I need to post the pictures of the Gators that live in the over flow pond when I lived in Jacksonville Fl....

That damn thing was no joke! An the Eastern Diamondbacks were Big!

 

Wow, that's crazy!

 

muzzyman88

When I lived In Jacksonville some kids broke into a pet store stealing a new shipment of exotic snakes. They released two Anacondas into the St. Johns River Basin never recovered and let a Black Mamba lose in the surrounded wooded area...If you look up the story

October 5, 2001 / Orlando, FL: 13-foot-long king cobra was found in garage...

January 24, 2010
Anaconda captured in Florida park
People at the park near Orlando had noticed ducks and geese disappearing, and had suspected an alligator.
The 12-foot snake is taken to serpentarium

The new problem Florida is beginning to have is those Hissing Cockroaches and Red knee Tarantulas.

 

The Amatuer,

Thats insane. That has to be one hell of a problem down there. Trying to find snakes, even that large is like looking for a needle in a haystack down there I would imagine. I never spent a lot of time in the "bush" of Florida, but from what I did see and do there, it is nasty.

 

I've always knew it would become a problem someday because people would buy these snakes as pets..A big storm would blow through leveling the home and the snake would get away.

Now far as those Rattlers from looking at your profile picture.....Start at your shoulder and go to your wrist being that your bicep is the biggest part of your arm....

Eastern Diamondbacks were that big with heads as huge as Chihuahuas's head . I found them often in my back and front yard. The thing is I love snakes...and many of my neighbors would pay me to remove them from their yards. Even if they didn't have to it was always good to get $50-100 bucks from them.

 

Ha, most snakes don't bother me much. I'm not in love with them, but not terrified of them either. They go their way, I go mine.

Thats a big rattler. We used to find a few rattlesnakes up north of me every year that would be pushing 6ft from nose to rattle tip. They usually don't bother me. They'll usually let ya know they're not happy with you.

Now a 15ft snake... if I found one on my porch would have me screaming like a school girl and running back inside.

 

Love fishing down in Flamingo. It's the real backcountry.



We have to fight off the gators to get to the hogs down here

 

I've seen those pictures floating around online and in emails for awhile now. Glad to finally see a good story written about it with facts. To answer the question at the end of the post, I'd be the predator in a heartbeat. No hesitation, no thinking, just shoot the crap outta the thing.

 

I'll say this from experience if one of those big pythons go for you they're super strong.And I don't think in an average case you're gonna win.

They are really that strong.

 

Mental note to self, never go hunting in the everglades, I prefer to be the hunter and not the hunted. That is one big snake, running across one of those would certainly make me soil my pants.

 

You're right! I don't think they really bite though. Do they? I mean in the case of a man walking upon one. They seem pretty docile in that regard. Don't know much about em really

 

Crazy

 

The only snakes killing off our deer up in NY are our politicians....