The Great Florida Python Hunt Finds Success on Day One of Program

With the Increasing Problem of Pythons in the Florida Everglades, State Opens Python Hunting Program

The great Florida python hunt has already found success on its first day of implementation. With the goal to limit the number of python snakes out in the wild of South Florida, the newest program has found success already. The intent of the python hunting is to try and reverse the problems that Florida residents and visitors have caused by their increasing of the python population. The problem had been growing, and with the anniversary of a two-year-old being killed by a pet python on the horizon, the state of Florida finally has started to take drastic measures to get the snake population under control.

The python permit program, as it is being called, is set to run from July 17 to October 31, at which point the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will take another look at the policy. It will be at that time that data is evaluated based on how many snakes have been caught, and the decision is made about whether to extend or expand the program. Think of the current snake hunting policies as a way to see if a program such as this would actually work, and if it needs to be given even more "teeth" in order to finally get the python population under control.

The main reason that the South Florida python population has gotten so out of control lies squarely at the feet of former snake owners. With Florida residents and visitors leaving their snakes behind, and dumping them in the Everglades, it has led to an overpopulation of the snakes as they find homes and begin to breed out of control. That just creates even more snakes out in the wild, and with some of them growing to scary sizes, it becomes a danger not just to people who are living in the area, but to the other wildlife that calls the Florida Everglades their home. The snakes (pythons) tend to get pretty big, and when some owners find that they have become too big to remain a pet, or that the owner has to move to a new location where the snake can't go, the easiest solution has too often turned out to be abandoning the snake in the wild.