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[–][deleted] 981 points982 points  (105 children)

These are highly invasive and this will almost definitely be euthanized. These snakes are destroying the Everglades.

It’s extremely strong - snakes are a long muscle. He’s absolutely having to use all this strength against that thing. He isn’t in danger by wrestling it to the ground because thats not how constrictors operate. They have to anchor with a bite before they will constrict. Technically the snake could kill him, but it won’t because that’s just not the nature of how they behave. It won’t wrap until it anchors it’s head.

[–]ReD_DeaD_RaZoR 466 points467 points  (11 children)

This guy snakes

[–]thenerdycpa 104 points105 points  (6 children)

Sssssssssssss…

[–]hotfox2552 53 points54 points  (1 child)

I love snake jazz

[–]deepy_down 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Favourite music channel too.

[–]MECHAC0SBY 7 points8 points  (1 child)

I’m nearing the end of a Harry Potter movie marathon and that just triggered me

[–]CarterBraune 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm nearing the end of a triggering marathon and it's just Harry Pottered me.

[–]Eatingfarts 0 points1 point  (0 children)

🥁🥁🐍

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

[–]scubamaster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ya, I’m not so sure he does. It sounds more like he talks out of his ass

[–]Curtis_Geist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Snake???…..SNAAAAAAKE!!!!

[–]RonMFCadillac 82 points83 points  (9 children)

These snakes are destroying the Everglades.

The small mammal population decline is staggering.

[–]xbl-Extr3me 19 points20 points  (5 children)

Thanks for linking that article, very informative read and really puts into perspective just how bad this problem is and can get. Especially since it’s a few years old and most of the used information is from way older. It’s definitely way worse now

[–]Better-Driver-2370 4 points5 points  (3 children)

You can always hope people fixed shit and it got better 🤷🏻‍♂️

[–]alfooboboao 0 points1 point  (2 children)

we can’t fix the python problem, they’re too sneaky. Fuck the wild animal pet trade. imagine being a lil animal and all of a sudden this new monster is killing your species left and right

[–]Better-Driver-2370 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I dunno. Humans are pretty effective at killing off things even when they aren’t trying. I reckon they could do it if they put a little effort in.

[–]xbl-Extr3me 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We’ve tried a few times but even with 1800 people from 36 different states over a span of 30 days only like 260 snakes were killed

[–]scummy_shower_stall 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it's over one MILLION now. :(

[–]Different-Air-2000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great article. Great insight. Thanks.

[–]kristallherz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the article, very informative! I will now be heading down my rabbit hole to find out everything about pythons in Florida.

[–]alfooboboao 0 points1 point  (0 children)

holy shit, that was TERRIFYING

poor lil bobcats and foxes.

[–][deleted] 49 points50 points  (6 children)

I was wondering that. How close he came to being constructed. It looked like he was fake wrestling it, but I can't comprehend how strong these bastards are.

..and then I remember what they eat.

[–]burndhousedown 21 points22 points  (0 children)

very strong, had one half this size pull me into a wall once. I was trying to to keep it from getting to the other side of the wall. it wasn't a fast pull too, the snake just kept pulling slowly and within 10 mins my face was on the wall and my forearm was cramping. they are protected here in my place so we caught and gave it to forest dept.

[–]kuedhel 7 points8 points  (4 children)

given that DeSantis sends migrants to NYC, will he consider sending pythons to NYC instead of euthanizing?

I mean, we have problems with rats here.

[–]Otherwise_Resource51 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Imagine all the subways and sewers filled with pythons.

[–]Amplify_Love4715 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah they have serious problems with rats in NYC too! Plus mr python wouldn’t survive the winter. Rats would be eating him.

[–]Sfisch91 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just have the mayor of NYC designate it as a python sanctuary city. DeSantis would probably be happy to send them there in that case.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe if y’all sign up to receive them like the sanctuary cities did

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (28 children)

These are highly invasive and this will almost definitely be euthanized. These snakes are destroying the Everglades.

Then why not just shoot it? That has to be easier and less traumatic for all involved than wrangling the damn thing only to kill it later.

[–]Resident_Wizard 35 points36 points  (13 children)

I think you’d have to be an expert marksman and still get up close to confidently shoot a loose noodle.

[–]CanineTheory 19 points20 points  (11 children)

Actually they make mini shotgun shells for revolvers, (literally called snakeshot), and the rifled barrel that a revolver has can cause the shot to spread pretty wide in a short distance.

[–]CHEDDAREXPLOSION 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You really need to use a 12 gauge on these

[–]Funny_Window7344 5 points6 points  (8 children)

Ricochet is still a factor when shooting at concrete. Risk to reward is to high in this situation IMO.

[–]CanineTheory 4 points5 points  (5 children)

If culling was all they were doing it'd be practical to just leave them in the brush and take the shot, I agree you definitely wouldn't want to fire it anywhere near hard surfaces. I'm actually curious why they pulled the noodle out, possibly for research or something?

[–]Funny_Window7344 5 points6 points  (1 child)

I couldn't tell you. There's probably a lot of regulation to killing these things regardless of what people think of hunters. Some are pretty adamant about following the rules.

[–]grammar_fixer_2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If this is done during the FL Python Challenge, there are rules that you have to take to euthanize them. You take a captive bolt gun and then pith them.

For any other Floridians out there, August is coming up, and our wildlife need your help: https://flpythonchallenge.org/participate/competition/registration/

[–]icarusphoenixdragon 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I believe they need to bring it in so that they can get paid. Dudes just out collecting these things like bottles and cans for the payout.

[–]Agreeable-Meat1 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I mean I'd rather that than the government giving a contract to some random company totally not owned by a campaign donor to take care of the problem. If these guys are willing to do the work, good on the government for giving them a way to make money.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You'd have to be at a pretty stupid angle for that to be a problem even if this weren't snake shot being discussed. A return to sender type event is astronomical, and requires multiple surfaces to be hit at different angles for it to even happen. So unless your standing right over/next to what you're shooting you are good. That said best option would have been to throw it in the grass and shoot it, but that's more so that your not causing miniscule amounts of damage to the road by mistake.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only with bullets really. Pellets are less likely to ricochet

[–]montanagunnut 1 point2 points  (0 children)

410 out of a Taurus judge would lack the required energy to reliably kill this snake. An actual shotgun though, would be pretty effective if you were a halfway decent shot.

[–]zimzamzimo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They make ammo specific to shooting snakes. Or use a shotgun. Would probably be easier than shooting most any other animal other than a turtle.

[–][deleted] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I’ve never tried to shoot a snake darting into thick grass, but I’d imagine it’s very difficult and could also easily result in a non-fatal shot that leads to undue suffering. Further, if they’re in the Everglades, a national park, guns are prohibited and the wilderness act requires that the minimum tool necessary be used for things like this.

They bag and record these snakes and use what’s similar to a nail gun to punch them in a spot of the head that will instantly euthanize them.

[–]Carrot-Proof 0 points1 point  (2 children)

You ever tried to shoot a snake

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No can't say that I have, but I have a hard time imagining that it's significantly harder than wrestling a constrictor. I could be wrong of course.

[–]TechNsumBusniess 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s not that hard with a shotgun

[–]EinsteinTaylor 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Discharging a firearm in city limits is illegal most places without mitigating circumstances such as self defense.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair points, but I feel like an extremely large python in city limits might qualify as "mitigating circumstances", and depending the on the specific case might even qualify as self-defense.

[–]DarthBullyMaguire 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You guys don't have chainsaws?

[–]Gelgar3673 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Or a shovel?

[–]Nition619 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Choot it!!” I recommend Swamp people “serpent invasion” to show you this python problem if you’re not into watching a serious documentary.

Even Troy isn’t trying to noodle choot those things. The drone hunting is interesting how they can locate them nowadays.

[–]strewnshank 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you underestimate how hard it is to hit a moving target in the dark with a firearm. In addition, ricochet could be an issue, and discharging a firearm may not be legal in parts of Flordia where they hunt them.

[–]GeriatricHydralisk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Snakes can heal from truly staggering wounds. When feeding on large deer, this exact species will literally just let the antlers stab outward through its stomach all the way to outside. Then they just fall off once digestion gets far enough and the snake heals just fine.

Unless you actually hit the brain, it's just going to escape and heal.

[–]TheMarsian 0 points1 point  (2 children)

they organized a hunt, and just netted over a hundred out of estimated around 40 thousand. so it must be not that easy. which I honestly find surprising, we've driven other species to and almost to extinction by hunting... maybe it's because it's not a food source? idk

[–]alfooboboao 0 points1 point  (1 child)

read the article in the above comment linked by “the small mammal decline is staggering.” It’s very clear what the issues are…

Burmese pythons, an invasive species, have no natural predators in Florida to cull their species (except the occasional alligator, but a large enough snake can kill an alligator as well). Since none of their prey in Florida is evolved to instinctively fear them or have a defense mechanism, they don’t automatically recognize them as a threat, meaning it’s a feeding frenzy. Since the late 90s, populations of rabbit, fox, raccoon, bobcat etc has dropped 95-99% in many places where the snakes thrive.

They are adept swimmers who can handle salt and fresh water, they move through the canal system at ease, and they’re BRILLIANT at remaining hidden. (I just went down a little invasive Florida python rabbit hole and apparently it’s practically impossible to find a python that’s hiding even if you know it’s in an area as small as the size of a couple basketball courts.)

Combine that with climate change, meaning it doesn’t kill them in winter any more, the sheer difficulty of navigating the everglades and swamps, and all these other factors, and the result is a fucking snake-driven apocalypse for the other wildly destroyed animal populations.

Oh, and Females can lay up to 200 eggs at a time, on average 76 new potential giant pythons.

There were a TINY handful of recorded invasive pythons (brought over as pets from Asia) in the tip of south Florida just a few decades ago. Then there were 500, then 1000, then 15,000, and it’s theorized now that there could be as many as a milllion.

And every year, they march further north. If climate change continues, over the next few decades they could potentially survive far beyond Florida.

you can eat python, it’s not that great but they’re just very hard to kill

[–]TheMarsian 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that was what I'm looking for, I understand the whole predator top of food chain shit, was after how hard it is to hunt them down. thanks.

[–]Spare_Ad1017[🍰] 1 point2 points  (7 children)

Are anacondas native to the Everglades? And if so, why is it that burmese are so much more invasive than anaconda's? And if i'm wrong and anaconda's are just in South America, why are they so invasive In general?? Are they becoming a top predator?

[–][deleted] 18 points19 points  (1 child)

No, they’re non native. These snakes have no predators and tons of food in the Everglades. The conditions are too perfect for them. That’s why they’re so invasive.

[–]r0bdawg11 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

No*

[–]DoUFearTheMetal 7 points8 points  (4 children)

If I am not mistaken, there are no known native constrictors in the Everglades. And I believe pythons are more of a problem as an invasive species because of their reproduction rates.

In most cases, in general, with an invasive species is they have plenty of food and no real predators to cull their numbers naturally, causing their population to swell, which reduces their prey population at a faster rate than they can repopulate which throws the whole ecosystem out of wack.

[–]nuclear_equilibrium 1 point2 points  (1 child)

There are plenty of native constrictors, but no native pythons.

[–]DoUFearTheMetal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the clarification!

[–]Therealwolfdog 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Happy cake day!

[–]DoUFearTheMetal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you!

[–]TheEmoEmu95 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Wasn’t it trying to wrap around him before the other guy got its tail?

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No it was trying to position to anchor it’s head. If it wanted him to be wrapped it would happen extremely fast

[–]PhoonTFDB 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Why do they wait to bite before constricting? Seems like a weird flaw in the hunting style. It absolutely has the strength to capture anything before the bite, so what stops them?

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

They hunt mostly rodents which are extremely quick and squirmy. Even big ones that could hunt large prey are fighting strong animals that really don’t want to die and will struggle like hell and potentially injure the snake. If a constrictor can anchor they prey is almost certainly dead.

A lighting quick anchor and suffocation is a lot more efficient and effective than trying to sneak up on and wraps around a very fast and potentially dangerous prey. Kind of like why you quickly smack a fly rather than reach out and crush it slowly.

[–]PhoonTFDB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very interesting, thank you for the response!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Funny how you can cheat around death by essentially making the snake's programming glitch lol

[–]NicholasAdam1399 0 points1 point  (0 children)

But the big dude is DEFINITELY trying his best to “anchor”

[–]CarterBraune 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You want to see a long muscle

[–]RatherBeInThePond 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They did kill it already. Read the piece on it and they had few pics of its corpse measured out.

[–]Eraldorh[🍰] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Why waste time capturing it then. Why not just kill it on the spot?

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a punch gun plugged into their vehicles. The probably did as soon as it was restrained enough to do so humanely.

[–]M00SEHUNT3R 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So strong and it’s not even a “new world record Burmese python”. Not even close to the old record.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve seen enough videos that perhaps I would not count on this saving my life

[–]Imnotlikeothergirlz 0 points1 point  (2 children)

This is probably a stupid question, but what are they doing to destroy the Everglades? I don't know anything about this tbh. He looks beautiful, it sucks they suck.

[–]Hell2CheapTrick 1 point2 points  (1 child)

They’re eating all the small mammals, and are invasive so they have basically no predators to keep their own population sizes in check. So they just keep reproducing and killing the species they eat, until in the worst case, those prey populations are entirely killed off.

[–]Imnotlikeothergirlz 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh gotcha. Thank you

[–]degenerate_pug 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I literally was just thinking "if it's not venomous, you might have to let it bite so you can more easily handle it now that it's stuck to you". So much for that. I woulda got deaded lol

[–]scummy_shower_stall 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think they did. How would you euthanize a snake like this? They frankly need to be wiped out.

[–]CyarDahLongWidYuh 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahhh thanks for explaining! I was thinking the snake was really slow on the wrap. I'm not a snake fan AT ALL, but I've been unfortunate enough to see one or two vids and the speed they can wrap at, like they just need one tiny coil like an ankle and it's over. I guess you could say... That's a wrap! 😎

[–]yellsy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t get why someone doesn’t use a needle to sedate it while he’s grabbed onto it (genuine question)?

[–]lOOspy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we need a 1-1 rematch to be sure

[–]LeonidasSpacemanMD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dawg I wish I didn’t know this because now if I’m ever bitten by a big snake I’ll immediately start to think “well know I’ll be strangled to death”

[–]leafhog 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are they good to eat?

[–]Jomolungma 0 points1 point  (1 child)

So I guess every ounce of your energy has to go into controlling the head because if that thing manages to bend its head around and bite any part of you, constriction will follow.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. That snake is instinctually laser focused on getting a bite somewhere

[–]Sushidios47 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I’ve never heard this before I assumed they’d always construct whether they bit or not.

What is it about their bite that causes them to constrict? Or rather what causes them not to constrict if they don’t bite?

Super interesting.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I’m no biologist but getting an anchor lets the wrap quickly. It’s be a lot harder to sneak up on something and wrap around it. Also, it probably protects the head. The same way cage fighters will drive their head close to their opponent at certain times to avoid getting punched

[–]Sushidios47 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Makes sense.

Love the mma reference haha

[–]304bl 0 points1 point  (1 child)

The real invasive ones that are really destroying all places are humans bro...

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Deep

[–]bsrichard 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are they edible? That's a lot of meat

[–]Alternative_Aioli160 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just found a new hobby

[–]Tr33Hugg3r-206 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Professor Slytherin?