Yikes, thank goodness they are an African fish, although they have been imported to be in public aquarians in the USA. I can't find if they are available for private collectors in the USA, which I hope not as that is how pythons and other invasive species get into our natural environments. The private owners like them when they are small and at some point they get tired of them and rather than turn them over to some zoo or something they dump them into the local river or lake and voila another invasive species gets it start in the US.
One my best friends has had a camp in the Everglades for over 35 years, it’s on the Miccosukee Indian reservation land. To get to his camp it’s a 45 minute ride by airboat. His commentary is on par with what I read. Most of the wildlife in the Everglades is gone. Rabbits, coons, possums, deer, large wading birds are nonexistent, the pythons have been that overwhelming in hunting down the native species. Since we both have hunted gators together for years his comment that there are no gators under 5 foot anymore, apparently they have been food for the pythons as well hits home. I’m joking about this rather ugly fish but I would entertain the idea if it worked, nothing else is…
How are the hogs doing against them? Our rattlesnakes are learning not to rattle... cuz hogs EAT THEM.
That's pretty scary. I watch some guy's Youtubes of him hunting pythons in the 'glades. It's pretty interesting, and he always get's his snake, just sneaks up and grabs the suckers by the throat. I don't know how you get the nerve to do that, but he does.
That’s actually a great question, from what I’ve heard the hogs are devastating to the pythons. The Indians have actually released hundreds of hogs into certain areas and shown great results in reducing the snake population. It seems the hogs are relentless once they identify a snake in the area. But govt doing its thing doesn’t advocate the idea since hogs are non-native…. And yeah go figure that one out. It’s as brilliant an idea that we will have a season on pythons during certain times of the year and charge you with a license instead of let’s kill the bastards
I don't get why they would have a season on the pythons. It seems to me it should be open seaqson on them and a bounty!
I’ve learned I was totally wrong about the hunting season (sorry). It’s year round on “private” land. But with Everglades National park at 1.5 million acres access to it is restricted. So in essence it’s very regulated because it’s a National park. Hunting Pythons in Florida: All You Need to Know.
I watched again. I think there were 3 humans and 2 or 3 dogs. The humans are pretty stationary. The dogs are very fast and hard to track. Like I said earlier, very cool.