Three hunters capture this huge invasive species in Everglades swamps
Three hunters captured a 16-foot-long, 105-pound python in the Everglades just as they were returning home after a night of searching for the enormous invasive snakes that have become a scourge in South Florida.
Zach Hoffman, Jan Gianello, and Justice Sargood hunted the snake in the early morning hours of May 31 near Everglades City, in Collier County in the southwest of the state.
Hoffman said they decided to check one last spot on the way home when they suddenly saw what looked like a shadow. They immediately jumped out of the truck and ran toward the snake that was between the road and the ditch.
Sargood held the python by the head and began wrestling with it.
'Jan and I controlled the rest of the body so it wouldn't coil too tightly. Once we had control of the snake, we ethically removed it. Then we realized what we had just caught,' Hoffman told the Naples Daily News.
Read more: Do you want to help protect the Everglades ecosystem and win up to $10,000?
The trio has been hunting the monstrous snakes for three years, and as of last May, the largest they had caught measured 10 feet, 2 inches, he said.
The three have captured more than 100 pythons.
Another group of python hunters captured the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County. It measured 19 feet.
Burmese pythons have a negative impact on native species. They are primarily found in and around the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida, where they feed on birds, mammals and other reptiles.
These snakes were first found in the Everglades swamps in 1979 in Miami-Dade County and are believed to have been released or escaped from captivity. A breeding population was confirmed in the early 2000s, and the snake was recognized as an established invasive species.
They are found in Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties, and on the southwest coast of Florida.
Since 2000, more than 23,000 Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida's natural habitat, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Burmese pythons are aggressive predators that disrupt the food chain, affecting native birds, mammals, and reptiles. A single female can lay more than 100 eggs at a time, which accelerates their spread.
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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Miami Herald
Three hunters capture this huge invasive species in Everglades swamps
Three hunters captured a 16-foot-long, 105-pound python in the Everglades just as they were returning home after a night of searching for the enormous invasive snakes that have become a scourge in South Florida. Zach Hoffman, Jan Gianello, and Justice Sargood hunted the snake in the early morning hours of May 31 near Everglades City, in Collier County in the southwest of the state. Hoffman said they decided to check one last spot on the way home when they suddenly saw what looked like a shadow. They immediately jumped out of the truck and ran toward the snake that was between the road and the ditch. Sargood held the python by the head and began wrestling with it. 'Jan and I controlled the rest of the body so it wouldn't coil too tightly. Once we had control of the snake, we ethically removed it. Then we realized what we had just caught,' Hoffman told the Naples Daily News. Read more: Do you want to help protect the Everglades ecosystem and win up to $10,000? The trio has been hunting the monstrous snakes for three years, and as of last May, the largest they had caught measured 10 feet, 2 inches, he said. The three have captured more than 100 pythons. Another group of python hunters captured the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County. It measured 19 feet. Burmese pythons have a negative impact on native species. They are primarily found in and around the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida, where they feed on birds, mammals and other reptiles. These snakes were first found in the Everglades swamps in 1979 in Miami-Dade County and are believed to have been released or escaped from captivity. A breeding population was confirmed in the early 2000s, and the snake was recognized as an established invasive species. They are found in Broward, Palm Beach, and Monroe counties, and on the southwest coast of Florida. Since 2000, more than 23,000 Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida's natural habitat, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Burmese pythons are aggressive predators that disrupt the food chain, affecting native birds, mammals, and reptiles. A single female can lay more than 100 eggs at a time, which accelerates their spread.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
'Python Huntress' takes on invasive snakes in the Everglades
By Maria Alejandra Cardona OCHOPEE, Florida (Reuters) -Amy Siewe was a successful real estate agent -- but her life changed after she captured her first python in Florida's Everglades. "I just had this fascination with snakes. So when I learned that there was a python problem here in Florida ... I went on a hunt, I caught a nine-foot (2.75-meter) python, and that was it. I was hooked!" she said. Within two months she had sold her business in Indiana and moved to Florida to become a python hunter. Now, with more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, she is known as the "Python Huntress" -- one of a handful of women amongst hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem. "This python is about 10 feet (3 meters) long," she says as she wrestles a snake she has just captured in the tall grass in the middle of the night. "It's probably about three years old, and to date it's eaten about 200 of our native animals, including mammals and birds." Burmese pythons have been spreading through the Everglades National Park since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 destroyed a breeding facility for the pet trade, freeing some 900 snakes. Originally native to Southeast Asia, the python can grow up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) long and has a voracious appetite, consuming the local wildlife, including mammals, birds and even alligators. The Everglades is a unique subtropical ecosystem, with the largest continuous mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. It is home to a vast array of unique species, including the endangered Florida panther, the American alligator and the American crocodile. But it provides no natural predators to the Burmese python, allowing the population of the invasive species to balloon. Scientists have noted dramatic declines in raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and rabbits in the region. "There's an estimated 500,000 pythons out there," Siewe said. The pythons, which are hunted by night, cannot legally be transported alive, so they are killed on site after being captured and measured. Once home, Siewe skins the dead snakes, and then has the skins professionally tanned into leather to be made into purses, wallets, watch bands and other goods. It takes an average of 12 hours to catch one. "So it's not that effective, right," she admits. "We're always going to have pythons in Florida. What we're trying to do is figure out how to decrease their numbers. Hunting right now is the most effective tool that we have."
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Family's dog ‘Zeus' dragged into Florida pond by massive alligator and miraculously comes out alive: ‘I don't know how he survived'
A family dog named Zeus summoned the strength of his namesake and managed to escape the literal jaws of death when an alligator dragged him from his backyard into a nearby pond, the dog's owners said. 'The vet told us the gator had just missed his jugular — it looked like Zeus's entire head had been in the gator's mouth. The fact that he made it out alive is nothing short of a miracle,' the family wrote in a GoFundMe post. Even the vet said, ''I don't know how he survived,'' the family added. 3 Zeus, a German Shepherd who survived a gator attack, wears the cone of shame while he recovers. GoFundMe Zeus, a German Shepherd, heard a noise on the night of June 2 and scooted through his doggie door out of his home in Wesley Chapel, Fla., to investigate, the family said. In an instant, an alligator came crashing through their backyard fence, snatched Zeus and dragged him to a pond, they said. 'My dad came in frantic. I'd never seen him like that. He's a tough guy. He said, 'The alligator just took Zeus,'' Zeus' owner Susan Alkhatib told WFLA. The family watched in horror as Zeus struggled while the alligator thrashed with the German Shepherd's head in its mouth. Finally, Zeus managed to escape the beast and the alligator swam off. 3 The alligator that attacked Zeus has managed to elude trappers on the hunt for him. GoFundMe 'The alligator had just let go of Zeus,' Alkhatib told WFLA. 'We started yelling at him to come toward us. When he got closer, he got tired. So we had to kind of go into the pond a little bit to get him.' Susan's mom waded into the pond and grabbed the battered pet and they rushed him to a veterinarian hospital for an emergency surgery. After the attack, Alkhatib said they don't feel as safe at home anymore. 'We have a doggy door, and Zeus will go in and out of it whenever he wants,' Alkhatib said. 'We have it covered right now because of what happened.' The family had taken a video of the scaly culprit earlier in the day when the gator had been lurking along the banks of the water. The family told WFLA that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has sent out trappers, but so far, the guilty gator has avoided capture. 3 Zeus suffered a broken jaw and underwent surgery after an alligator attacked him and dragged him into a pond near his home in Florida. GoFundMe Meanwhile, Zeus is slowly but surely recovering, according to the family. He sustained a fractured jaw, puncture wounds, and the vet needed to manually realign his jaw and wire it together. He's on a liquid diet fed to him with a syringe until he has another surgery in about 8 weeks. He'll also need to wear a muzzle for at least another month. A picture of the recovering miracle pup shows him post-surgery with his wounds around his neck and face, with much of his fur shaved off from the surgery. 'Despite it all, Zeus continues to be such a trooper,' the family wrote in a recent update on GoFundMe. 'He's getting tons of love, snuggles, and care.'
