Biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimate the cold snap killed about half the snakes and could cut into breeding.

Beginning Aug. 28, licensed hunters with the proper permits will have another shot at Burmese pythons and seven other reptiles of concern on state-managed lands. For more information about hunting seasons and regulations, visit MyFWC.com/Hunting.

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The interesting thing about the Florida Problem…

There is a Burmese Python population in the Everglades…(at least there still was until before this last winter)….but we have solid evidence, based on country-of-origin import records and DNA samples, which disproves the theory of “irresponsible pet owners” releasing these snakes into the Everglades.
The feral population of Burmese Pythons was a product of hurricane Andrew. It was NOT caused by careless keepers.
Yet the media continues to chant that tired, old (false) mantra.
The general public needs to know the facts.

Another interesting study was conducted by prominent a Herpetologist and Professor at CU, Dr. David Chizar. In 1995 I listened to Dr. Chizar’s presentation of this study, while attending the International Herpetological Symposium.

This study looked at the feasibility of re-introducing captive bred “head started” Aruba Island Rattlesnakes (C. unicolor) to their NATIVE habitat, within an area set aside as a wildlife reserve.

They ran into some interesting data.
Comparing the “head started” captive bred snakes with wild snakes they found that the “head started” snakes essentially had “imprinting” problems. They would not be suited to survive in wild. These “head started” snakes lacked the skills needed to survive in their natural environment.

Wild Caught snakes reacted correctly to stimuli:
They sought refuge of heavy piles of rock or similar shelter when faced with a potential predator. (Such as a human or a dog.)

“Head Started” snakes would often associate humans with food….as they were used to receiving feedings from humans.
Inside the cage they would often witness the “head-started” c.b. snakes rubbing their faces on the glass in anticipation of feeding when these snakes saw humans…..or even when they saw Dr.Chizar’s dog!
(Chizar often had his dog in the lab during the evening feeding sessions….and the snakes would associate human or canine presence with the offering of food items.)

I have also witnessed this face-on-the-glass-rubbing in several species of snakes including Elapids, Pythons, Boas, several Colubrid species and also Crotalus species. We often refer to this activity as “begging”.

Wild snakes were able to effectively track their prey items after the bite.
C.B. head-started snakes performed very poorly at this task. They often failed altogether.

Dr. Chizar did a tongue flicks per minute study while the snakes were tracking their prey items.
The wild caught snakes scored off the chart…and rarely if ever got off course while tracking.
The “head-started” snakes scored poorly with low tongue flicks per minute and often got off track….sometimes they were unable to complete the task.

Head-Started snakes have a greater chance of being introduced to (and infected with) fatal reptilian diseases, while in captivity. This further diminishes their chances of surviving in the wild after re-introduction. It also opens more possibilities of spreading diseases to the wild populations.

One cannot help but draw similarities in the data this study revealed to a similar “Recovery Project” which was aimed at the re-introduction of Thick Billed Parrots to Arizona back in the early 80‘s.
Adult birds were selected as the best possible breeding stock… from some of the nations top bird breeders….this was also to provide genetic diversity within the new population of “recovery subjects”.
The birds were banded and tracked.
Every single bird died. The project was an epic failure.
These birds lacked the essential skills needed to thrive in the wild. They were dependent on humans for skills that they were not able to learn from their avian parents. They could not contend with natural predators of the wild.

The vast majority of Burmese Pythons in captivity… were hatched in captivity.
These Pet Burmese Pythons do not have the skills needed to survive in the wild. Escaped pet Burmese Pythons….or even Burmese Pythons “purportedly released” would be lucky to survive past the one year mark, outside of the captive environment.

The Burmese Pythons which inhabit the Everglades National Park
were introduced as hatchling imports. A group of 900 babies that were not yet imprinted to human care or captive conditions.
During Hurricane Andrew these snakes escaped because of the destruction of a wholesale facility near the Everglades National Park. It was the result of a natural disaster which introduced these snakes to the Everglades….It was not the act of irresponsible pet owners or reptile keepers.

So….lets do a little rough math here.
Statistically speaking, 1 Out of 100 hatchling snakes will survive natural predation, human interaction, disease etc. to mature as a breeding adult.
This 1/100th reduction in population leaves you with an animal that has gained a lifetime of the necessary skills for survival in the wild.

Out of 900 snakes that would leave us with 9 surviving adults.
But lets be reasonable here…give them a bonus…lets say that 12 Burmese Pythons out of that group of 900 survive to reach adult breeder age/size.
Now, figure that half of them are males and half are females.
That leaves us with 6 breeder Female Burmese Pythons to start our Everglades Feral Colony.

Above “rough math” is just hypothetical….
Want to know the facts?

Using DNA samples researchers were able to trace the Everglades population back to 5 founding females…all of them were of Vietnam origin.
Import documents reflect that the “Hurricane Andrew 900 Hatchling Burmese”….originated from…you guessed it….. Vietnam.

These introduced snakes were not the result of careless pet owners…they were introduced because of a natural disaster.

Animal Rights Extremists love to perpetuate (and encourage the Media to perpetuate) this finger pointing blame game.
They point to animal keepers as the problem… basically labeling reptile keepers as irresponsible and careless slobs.
This is both unjust and untrue.
As the Media continues to chant the Animal Extremist Mantra, irresponsible, uninformed politicians draft new bills that essentially punish a Nation of people for a relatively minor problem that only exists in the Southern TIP of ONE STATE. A problem that our natural climatic patterns almost solved this last winter! It is a problem that pet owners, business owners and hobbyists did not cause.

I encourage everyone to stand up and be counted.
Follow the USARK guidelines and submit your public comment.
Let other people know what is really happening.
Encourage others to help protect the rights we currently have.

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I haven’t made any updates to the site since the beginning of March.  This is due to being tied up with work.  …What time I have on the computer has been almost entirely work related.  Well, the HSUS recently did something that brought me out of hiding – as it were.  They started a letter/e-mail campaign regarding how large constrictors are dangerous, and should be listed as injurious.  To anyone familiar with the HSUS this comes as no surprise since they are out to systematically remove all animals from the pet industry, and have already made steps with that regard by successfully banning the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores in the state of California.

Read full article here:  In Response to the Recent HSUS Email Campaign

The Tuesday hearing put some of the first hard numbers on the staggering death toll from a historic cold snap — nine of 10 pythons equipped with radio tracers in Everglades National Park died, according to one yet-to-be published study.

It also cranked up the heat on a simmering battle over a controversial federal proposal to ban the interstate sale and import of large constrictors. Breeders contend the measure would destroy a $1 billion industry and thousands of jobs.

Shawn Heflick, a conservation biologist from Palm Bay and science advisor to a trade group called the U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers, said a cold-weather toll he estimated at 70 to 80 percent proved that federal risk assessments suggesting the snake could spread to other states were overblown.

“This population of pythons cannot expand outside of Florida,” he said. “This is a Florida problem, not a federal problem.”

At least there was no dispute about the Florida part.

Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife ecologist who led an assessment of cold effects on pythons in the Everglades, said enough survived to ensure the Burmese wasn’t going to disappear from the comfy, subtropical confines of South Florida — despite cold snaps and intensive eradication efforts.

Nine of the 10 radio-tagged snakes died, including all eight females, but field surveys for several weeks following the cold snap found higher survival rates — nearly 60 percent of 99 snakes spotted by Mazzotti’s team of researchers were alive.

With his study pending publication in an academic journal, Mazzotti — reached after the hearing — said he could not discuss the findings in detail, but said it was clear the cold had seriously knocked back a population of big snakes conservatively estimated in the thousands.

MANY DEAD

“What we can say is that a lot of pythons died and there are way less out there now,” he said.

Without expanded efforts to control them, he said, the snakes are likely to rebound in coming years. Only last week, his researchers documented a rare sighting showing that some of the survivors are well enough to engage in the propagation business.

On a tree island a mile from the Pahayokee boardwalk, Mike Rochford and two other team members discovered a 15-foot-plus female, one of the largest captured in the park, and three males entwined in a pulsing “mating ball.” The biological details are best left at, “What happens in Pahayokee, stays in Pahayokee.”

Beyond South Florida, however, the cold kill has given critics of a federal crackdown on the reptile breeding trade plenty of ammunition.

They argue it exposed flaws in a risk assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey suggesting that the Burmese python, and several others, could potentially spread into other southern and Southwestern states.

Heflick, an advocate for domestic breeders, warned that banning interstate sales was overkill that could worsen the problem. Owners of colorful varieties, some worth thousands of dollars, would suddenly have worthless snakes, he said.

“Alarmingly, many of the millions of now legal snakes could be released in retaliation or in anger and a sense of betrayal from the government,” he said.

HUNTERS URGED

Jorge P. Gutierrez Jr., a Miami attorney and airboater, urged the panel to open Everglades National Park to hunters, who he said could help control the snake.

Mazzotti and other scientists, as well as federal parks and wildlife managers, warned it is premature to use one cold snap to dismiss the threat of the Burmese and other constrictors that the U.S. Department of Interior is proposing to add to a federal blacklist of “injurious” species.

Phyllis Windle, a senior invasive species scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the country needs to overhaul its entire system for dealing with the python and other invasive species, which she called the “least recognized and most poorly addressed environmental threat of our time.”

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Committee Chairman Grijalva made opening remarks regarding the risks to Everglades National Park posed by invasive species. Members in attendance were Ranking Member Henry Brown (R-SC), Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Congresswoman Nepolitano (D-CA).

Expert Testimony was given by: Bert Frost, Ph.D., Associate Director, Natural Resources, Stewardship and Science, National Park Service; Frank J. Mazzotti, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Davie, FL; Marcy Heacker, M.S., Division of Birds, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Daniel Thayer, Director, Department of Vegetation & Land Management, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL; Jorge P. Gutierrez, Jr., Civil Trial Attorney, Gonzalez and Garcia, Miami, FL; Shawn K. Heflick, M.S., Biologist USARK/ Science Officer CFHS, Palm Bay, FL; Daniel Simberloff, Ph.D., Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Science, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN; Phyllis Windle, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Invasive Species, Union of Concerned Scientists, Washington, DC; and Scott Hardin, Exotic Species Coordinator, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, FL.

Ranking Member Henry Brown (R-SC) made a lengthy statement assailing the notion that listing large constrictors on the Injurious Wildlife list of the Lacey Act would have any positive impact on the Everglades. “How is putting thousands of Americans out of work and destroying thousands of small businesses going to eradicate Burmese pythons in South Florida?” Brown said. Congressman Bishop commented that it was clear pythons were an invasive issue limited to south Florida and would never be a problem in his home state of Utah.

Dr. Mazzotti from the University of Florida testified that 9 out of 10 of the radio telemetered Burmese pythons being tracked by the National Park Service in Everglades National Park succumbed to the recent cold snap and died as a result. Scott Hardin of Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation commission testified that he believed at least 50% or more of the pythons in south Florida died in the cold. Shawn Heflick, a conservation biologist and science adviser to USARK, said a cold-weather toll he estimated at 70 to 80 percent proved that federal risk assessments suggesting the snake could spread to other states were overblown. “This population of pythons cannot expand outside of Florida,” he said. “This is a Florida problem, not a federal problem.” Both Hardin and Mazzotti agreed that this was an issue limited to south Florida and the Lacey act was not an effective tool to control invasive species. They both urged a more pragmatic and comprehensive approach that was inclusive of the reptile industry.

Click here to read Testimony by Shawn Heflick on behalf of USARK:
http://usark.org/uploads/Heflick%20Testimony.pdf

Click here to read Testimony of all witnesses (click individual names):
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=27&extmode=view&extid=340

The majority opinion amongst the witnesses seemed to be:

1. Pythons are a problem limited to several counties in south Florida.
2. As such a Lacey Act listing would not be warranted nor effective in addressing real problems.
3. A more comprehensive and pragmatic approach to dealing with potential invaders on a regional basis is necessary.
4. Collaboration between agencies, academics and the expertise of industry is key to finding real solutions.

USARK would like to thank the leadership and measured approach of Chairman Grijalva in conducting the hearing. We would also like to thank Ranking members Brown and Bishop for their astute comments and pointed questions revealing the true scope of the issues. Special thanks to Scott Hardin and Frank Mazzotti for bringing real perspective to what has been an over sensationalized regional problem. And a very special thanks to Shawn Heflick for his expertise and devotion to the truth on behalf of the Reptile Nation!

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