Python Challenge: Inside the world of Florida’s snake hunters

"Python!" she squeals. "Across the water!"

...Ok this is just a short  part of the whole story.

...A female can lay up to 100 eggs at a time.

...They can grow up to 23 feet and be 200 pounds.

...From released or escaped pets, their population has exploded in an area where they have no natural enemies.

...Add to this mix, Boa constrictors, and more.

...Native species are being lost at numbers that may mean the snakes are eating the species into extinction.

...If I mention the "love bug's" in Florida, those who have experienced these  "flying united" insects can turn a highway ride, into a severe hazard like coming into an extreme blizzard condition, coating your windshield, or helmet face mask, with their blood and guts, which is like glue to remove.

...They think the insects came from "bilge water" pumped out of an empty cargo ship dumping the water, before taking on cargo.

...Almost every time I went to the everglades, for fishing, I would see many birds singing, and an occasional wild orchid growing. It was very noisy.

...I heard from my fishing friend that it is somewhat quiet. Like a hush has fallen. And even fishing has gone way down.

Catching the python by hand without a weapon offers a trio of hunters three unappealing choices: Be the sucker who takes on the head and gets a bite on the arm; the sucker who grabs the midsection and ends up with a snake wrapped around your neck; or the sucker in the back who will almost always be covered in urine and feces -- a process known politely as "musking" a predator.

...Doesn't that sound like a nice way to spend a day?

Joyce tells me he welcomes the Python Challenge. He's frustrated, however, that when it comes to invasive species, lawmakers and the media focus almost exclusively on snakes. Feral cats are bigger threats to wildlife than snakes, he insists, but no one talks about them. (Somehow the movie Kittens on a Plane never made it past pre-production.) Wild pigs are a nuisance too, but there's no Creation story about how Satan took on the form of Babe and tempted Eve with a taste of his Forbidden Bacon.

...I suggest that you read the full story below, and realize what allowing even a cat can do letting just one to go feral can do to a local eco-system.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/python-challenge-inside-world-florida-snake-hunters-093354584--politics.html