Phoebe, the fox cub was found all alone in a cardboard box in Leeds, but Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, who took her in, didn’t have any foxes to place her with.
They made the unusual decision to try to team her up with badgers Bella and Betty and the rest has been a Disney fairy tale. Alexandra Farmer, chief executive of the charity said: ‘Foxes and badgers would never mix in the wild, in fact they tend to keep out of each other’s way.’ She said that because they were all without their mothers and of similar size they thought they could place together while keeping a close eye on them.
She added: ‘We have been delighted to see they have bonded extremely well, it’s been lovely to see them feeding, sleeping and even playing together. The two badger cubs were discovered wandering in the street in Meltham, West Yorkshire. Phoebe’s family was nowhere to be found, but an adult badger, believed to be Betty and Bella’s mother, was seen dead on a road nearby. The trio now eat, sleep and play together every day.
Phoebe, the fox cub was found all alone in a cardboard box in Leeds, but Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, who took her in, didn’t have any foxes to place her with.
They made the unusual decision to try to team her up with badgers Bella and Betty and the rest has been a Disney fairy tale. Alexandra Farmer, chief executive of the charity said: ‘Foxes and badgers would never mix in the wild, in fact they tend to keep out of each other’s way.’ She said that because they were all without their mothers and of similar size they thought they could place together while keeping a close eye on them.
She added: ‘We have been delighted to see they have bonded extremely well, it’s been lovely to see them feeding, sleeping and even playing together. The two badger cubs were discovered wandering in the street in Meltham, West Yorkshire. Phoebe’s family was nowhere to be found, but an adult badger, believed to be Betty and Bella’s mother, was seen dead on a road nearby. The trio now eat, sleep and play together every day.
I've seen Fox and Hound.
I know how this Disney story ends.
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
Phoebe, the fox cub was found all alone in a cardboard box in Leeds, but Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, who took her in, didn’t have any foxes to place her with.
They made the unusual decision to try to team her up with badgers Bella and Betty and the rest has been a Disney fairy tale. Alexandra Farmer, chief executive of the charity said: ‘Foxes and badgers would never mix in the wild, in fact they tend to keep out of each other’s way.’ She said that because they were all without their mothers and of similar size they thought they could place together while keeping a close eye on them.
She added: ‘We have been delighted to see they have bonded extremely well, it’s been lovely to see them feeding, sleeping and even playing together. The two badger cubs were discovered wandering in the street in Meltham, West Yorkshire. Phoebe’s family was nowhere to be found, but an adult badger, believed to be Betty and Bella’s mother, was seen dead on a road nearby. The trio now eat, sleep and play together every day.
I've seen Fox and Hound.
I know how this Disney story ends.
It's not based on a book for children with a dog on the cover or, even worse, a dog AND a Newbery Award on the cover so it'll probably turn out alright.
This message has been brought to you between gulping laughter from Florida man.
The difference is that they expect those kinds of temperatures in Florida, so they have things like air conditioning.
82 isn't even air conditioning temperatures. It's open two windows and enjoy the cross breeze temperature.
82 is air conditioning weather, with a side of "I might die if I go outside."
A dry 93 is good tanning weather, good car wash weather, and absolutely perfect for certain gardening tasks like building the rings for one's entire garden up so kids can leave the water on for twelve minutes and have the entire thing watered.
A wet 82 is fucking unbearable. Past a certain amount of humidity one literally can't sweat. Humid heat is hellish on the unacclimated.
A court has ordered the German government to reimburse a military attaché for his family's transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
The gone right is that this actually saved the German government money. When the attache's assignment in Washington ended, his family took the cruise back to Germany instead of flying. The German government was originally only willing to reimburse him for the price of economy-class airfare, but it turns out the length of a flight from Washington meant the man was actually entitled to business-class tickets for himself and his family. Those tickets would have cost between 5,000 and 6,000 Euros, so the court ruled he be fully reimbursed for the 3,500 Euro cost of the cruise.
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Yup, one of the many invasive species we're having serious issues with.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Yup, one of the many invasive species we're having serious issues with.
Kinda reminds me of the cold snap we npr did a semi-humorous piece about frozen iguanas, got a lot of flack for make fun of it, and then got a Florida conservation official on who basicly went "iguanas are an invasive species, horray freak weather."
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
Winter in Florida absolutely exists, just not in any form that most people would recognize/respect.
The lowest I've seen it get is the 40s in Miami, which compared to say, NYC, isn't that cold. But it's fuckin' Miami, so everyone is freezing. And then obviously the farther north you go, the colder it gets. Orlando has dropped into the 20s a couple of times, but 30s are more common (as the overnight low). Northern Florida has had snow as well, though not in any "real" amounts.
Winter also doesn't generally last as long down here either, but to say it doesn't happen is incorrect.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Yup, one of the many invasive species we're having serious issues with.
Kinda reminds me of the cold snap we npr did a semi-humorous piece about frozen iguanas, got a lot of flack for make fun of it, and then got a Florida conservation official on who basicly went "iguanas are an invasive species, horray freak weather."
Yup, they had Iguana's falling out of the trees b/c it had gotten so cold they effectively froze (but were still alive, as one man hilariously found out after loading his warm car full of them). Lionfish are wrecking our marine systems, Iguanas/pythons all over the south/everglades, some kind of toad (i forget the name) that's wrecking frog populations (and is super poisonous to dogs), and probably a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
Hello snake farms.
How long does it take to get a python 10+ feet long? How much food? Honest question here, because I have no idea.
I'm not a snake owner, but I can't imagine you'd be turning a profit from your snake farm without a lot of work feeding your snakes so they can grow up fat and happy. And if you're putting the work into farming snakes, you'd probably get more money for turning the snakes into belts for tourists than you would get for cashing them in for a bounty.
I mean, these snakes aren't like rats which will eat damned near anything and breed like, well, rats.
+1
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EncA Fool with CompassionPronouns: He, Him, HisRegistered Userregular
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Don't go in the swamp, guys.
It's just dragons and flowers all the goddamn time.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
Hello snake farms.
How long does it take to get a python 10+ feet long? How much food? Honest question here, because I have no idea.
I'm not a snake owner, but I can't imagine you'd be turning a profit from your snake farm without a lot of work feeding your snakes so they can grow up fat and happy. And if you're putting the work into farming snakes, you'd probably get more money for turning the snakes into belts for tourists than you would get for cashing them in for a bounty.
I mean, these snakes aren't like rats which will eat damned near anything and breed like, well, rats.
Sure, 10+ feet long snake takes forever, but that bounty length would get smaller and smaller.
Eventually there'd probably become a breaking point on keeping a snakefarm just from volume.
Probably better to actually hire some firm to get rid of them with actual metrics on success (if only to avoid people hurting themselves over a 50 dollar bounty).
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
Hello snake farms.
How long does it take to get a python 10+ feet long? How much food? Honest question here, because I have no idea.
I'm not a snake owner, but I can't imagine you'd be turning a profit from your snake farm without a lot of work feeding your snakes so they can grow up fat and happy. And if you're putting the work into farming snakes, you'd probably get more money for turning the snakes into belts for tourists than you would get for cashing them in for a bounty.
I mean, these snakes aren't like rats which will eat damned near anything and breed like, well, rats.
Sure, 10+ feet long snake takes forever, but that bounty length would get smaller and smaller.
Eventually there'd probably become a breaking point on keeping a snakefarm just from volume.
Probably better to actually hire some firm to get rid of them with actual metrics on success (if only to avoid people hurting themselves over a 50 dollar bounty).
Hm. Not so fast.
Laboratory Conditions
In a study published in the January 2001 issue of “The Journal of Experimental Biology,” J. Matthias Starck and Kathleen Beese studied the effects of food on the intestinal growth of Burmese pythons. At the beginning of the study, a subset of snakes measured approximately 3 feet in length at 9 months of age. At the end of the study, approximately 2 1/2 years later, the snakes measured about 10 feet. The snakes increased in mass an average of almost 2 pounds per 100 days, or about seven pounds per year. The snakes in the study were fed prey of varying size, at intervals of 12 to 125 days.
There seems not to be much on the growth rate of wild snakes, but call it half that to be generous and say a wild ten foot snake is five to six years old.
With the everglades being pretty much ideal habitat with minimal natural predators and lots of food I have no doubt pythons are getting to really big sizes pretty rapidly. Like in that one article in one area they caught a 16 foot python, a 10 foot python and a couple 8 foot ones. But reading stuff about this just makes me want to slap the idiots who purchased pythons thinking they are cool pets not realizing they can get really god damn big and letting them go in the damn everglades.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Don't go in the swamp, guys.
It's just dragons and flowers all the goddamn time.
If you're trying to dissuade me, you're not doing a good job. :P
I feel like a 16' python falls into the "serious threat to human life" category
It very much is. Even an 8 or 10 foot burmese could probably be lethal to the average person if it had the desire to try. They are some beefy snakes. The big thing is they are also incredibly skittish by nature, and the average person is just way too active for them to feel comfortable attacking out of the blue. But the people trying to catch them? Absolutely dangerous, especially in swampy terrain where it's easy to lose your balance.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
Don't go in the swamp, guys.
It's just dragons and flowers all the goddamn time.
If you're trying to dissuade me, you're not doing a good job. :P
Well, someone has to go in there and feed my yard. Might as well be you.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
With the everglades being pretty much ideal habitat with minimal natural predators and lots of food I have no doubt pythons are getting to really big sizes pretty rapidly. Like in that one article in one area they caught a 16 foot python, a 10 foot python and a couple 8 foot ones. But reading stuff about this just makes me want to slap the idiots who purchased pythons thinking they are cool pets not realizing they can get really god damn big and letting them go in the damn everglades.
Some of those pythons are getting large enough to kill and eat full size alligators.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
Hello snake farms.
IIRC this is exactly what happened in colonial India. The British were a bit nervous about all of the venomous snakes hanging around, so they put out a bounty for every snake killed. So people started farming the snakes. So the brits ended the bounties. So the snake farmers released their now-worthless stock into the wild, resulting in a worse snake problem than they had in the first place.
Forget Florida Man, the true threat is Florida Snake:
SClBBiologists are capturing the snakes by using a white male python, named Argo, who has a tracking device implanted in him, according to WINK. Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s Environmental Science Department, told WINK that 10,000 pounds of snakes have been captured within a 40-mile area during the last five breeding seasons. Argo recently led Bartoszek’s team to a group of snakes at a large breeding ground — one of which was a female that was about to lay 40 eggs, according to WINK. "Eight pythons that added up to 280 pounds of snake all together," Bartoszek told WINK. Less than a week later, Argo led them to another group of snakes that Bartoszek told WINK was one of the largest ever found in Collier County. It included six male pythons and one massive egg-laying female. "One python had the remains of a possum and a bobcat, many others are deer and fawn," Bartoszek told WINK. "They are definitely eating all the way up the food chain and that’s very worrisome, because if they are impacting deer, that’s panther food."
That...is a lot of snake.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
Hello snake farms.
IIRC this is exactly what happened in colonial India. The British were a bit nervous about all of the venomous snakes hanging around, so they put out a bounty for every snake killed. So people started farming the snakes. So the brits ended the bounties. So the snake farmers released their now-worthless stock into the wild, resulting in a worse snake problem than they had in the first place.
So that is what the rat farm gag in the Prachett books was about.
Well... In Maurice maybe. The Ankh-Morpork ones were to supply the dwarf fast food market.
In Soul Music they parody the situation fairly closely:
Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city council countered it by offering twenty pence for every rat tail. This did, for a week or two, reduce the number of rats—and then people were suddenly queueing up with tails, the city treasury was being drained, and no one seemed to be doing much work. And there still seemed to be a lot of rats around. Lord Vetinari had listened carefully while the problem was explained, and had solved the thing with one memorable phrase which said a lot about him, about the folly of bounty offers, and about the natural instinct of Ankh-Morporkians in any situation involving money: “Tax the rat farms.”
Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion.
I feel like a 16' python falls into the "serious threat to human life" category
Serious danger to kids for sure. Most adults would simply be large enough we would likely not be in the range of prey size they would go after but young kids would be in great danger from one.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I've seen Fox and Hound.
I know how this Disney story ends.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
It's not based on a book for children with a dog on the cover or, even worse, a dog AND a Newbery Award on the cover so it'll probably turn out alright.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
A dry 93 is good tanning weather, good car wash weather, and absolutely perfect for certain gardening tasks like building the rings for one's entire garden up so kids can leave the water on for twelve minutes and have the entire thing watered.
A wet 82 is fucking unbearable. Past a certain amount of humidity one literally can't sweat. Humid heat is hellish on the unacclimated.
good dog
dumb dog
but good dog
https://www.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1375558
The gone right is that this actually saved the German government money. When the attache's assignment in Washington ended, his family took the cruise back to Germany instead of flying. The German government was originally only willing to reimburse him for the price of economy-class airfare, but it turns out the length of a flight from Washington meant the man was actually entitled to business-class tickets for himself and his family. Those tickets would have cost between 5,000 and 6,000 Euros, so the court ruled he be fully reimbursed for the 3,500 Euro cost of the cruise.
- John Stuart Mill
That...is a lot of snake.
Yup, one of the many invasive species we're having serious issues with.
Kinda reminds me of the cold snap we npr did a semi-humorous piece about frozen iguanas, got a lot of flack for make fun of it, and then got a Florida conservation official on who basicly went "iguanas are an invasive species, horray freak weather."
But theres no winter in florida!
Tell that to the iguanas and the man who thought he'd make a killing off their "frozen" corpses in Mexico.
I'm surprised they don't have open season with rewards on invasive snakes.
Like $50 for every dead burmese python over 10' in length. Keep repeating with shorter lengths until you have basically caused them to go extinct in Florida.
Also ban non-native species that can exceed a certain size.
In weird news...
Man jailed for 50 years for stealing $1.2m-worth of fajitas
$ 1.2 million of fajitas. I don't even know how that's possible.
The lowest I've seen it get is the 40s in Miami, which compared to say, NYC, isn't that cold. But it's fuckin' Miami, so everyone is freezing. And then obviously the farther north you go, the colder it gets. Orlando has dropped into the 20s a couple of times, but 30s are more common (as the overnight low). Northern Florida has had snow as well, though not in any "real" amounts.
Winter also doesn't generally last as long down here either, but to say it doesn't happen is incorrect.
What we really need is some colonial europeans. Those guys can erdadicate any species
Yup, they had Iguana's falling out of the trees b/c it had gotten so cold they effectively froze (but were still alive, as one man hilariously found out after loading his warm car full of them). Lionfish are wrecking our marine systems, Iguanas/pythons all over the south/everglades, some kind of toad (i forget the name) that's wrecking frog populations (and is super poisonous to dogs), and probably a bunch of other stuff I'm forgetting.
Apparently in this case the best answer may be importing specialists from India
Hello snake farms.
How long does it take to get a python 10+ feet long? How much food? Honest question here, because I have no idea.
I'm not a snake owner, but I can't imagine you'd be turning a profit from your snake farm without a lot of work feeding your snakes so they can grow up fat and happy. And if you're putting the work into farming snakes, you'd probably get more money for turning the snakes into belts for tourists than you would get for cashing them in for a bounty.
I mean, these snakes aren't like rats which will eat damned near anything and breed like, well, rats.
Don't go in the swamp, guys.
It's just dragons and flowers all the goddamn time.
Sure, 10+ feet long snake takes forever, but that bounty length would get smaller and smaller.
Eventually there'd probably become a breaking point on keeping a snakefarm just from volume.
Probably better to actually hire some firm to get rid of them with actual metrics on success (if only to avoid people hurting themselves over a 50 dollar bounty).
Hm. Not so fast.
There seems not to be much on the growth rate of wild snakes, but call it half that to be generous and say a wild ten foot snake is five to six years old.
If you're trying to dissuade me, you're not doing a good job. :P
It very much is. Even an 8 or 10 foot burmese could probably be lethal to the average person if it had the desire to try. They are some beefy snakes. The big thing is they are also incredibly skittish by nature, and the average person is just way too active for them to feel comfortable attacking out of the blue. But the people trying to catch them? Absolutely dangerous, especially in swampy terrain where it's easy to lose your balance.
Well, someone has to go in there and feed my yard. Might as well be you.
Some of those pythons are getting large enough to kill and eat full size alligators.
Though sometimes the gators win.
IIRC this is exactly what happened in colonial India. The British were a bit nervous about all of the venomous snakes hanging around, so they put out a bounty for every snake killed. So people started farming the snakes. So the brits ended the bounties. So the snake farmers released their now-worthless stock into the wild, resulting in a worse snake problem than they had in the first place.
So that is what the rat farm gag in the Prachett books was about.
In Soul Music they parody the situation fairly closely:
- John Stuart Mill
Serious danger to kids for sure. Most adults would simply be large enough we would likely not be in the range of prey size they would go after but young kids would be in great danger from one.