Another Python Hunter.

[RJK890]

Not one of the three amigo's from the fact based TV show.
This is an article on one of the other seven snake hunters authorized by the State of Florida to catch Burms in the Everglades, and it is laced with misinformation and fear tactics..

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.asylum.com/2010/06/29/sn...jeff-fobb-florida-everglades-burmese-pythons/

 

[PyBoa1964]

From what it looks like, I think it is on every Monday night for a while. Maybe

 

[RJK890]

The Article:

Snake Hunter Cleaning Up Florida's Everglades One Burmese Python at a Time

Enough is enough!
Capt. Jeff Fobb has had it with these mother-lovin' snakes in this mother-lovin' swamp!

Fobb works for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue as a venom response officer. When someone reports a poisonous or otherwise-scary snake, it's his job to go get it.

In his spare time, he likes to hike through the Florida Everglades and do it for free.

Fobb says he's been this way since he was a kid. For 30 of his 43 years he has intentionally sought to make contact with especially cantankerous snakes, even vacationing in Central and South America and Asia to get up close and personal with some of the world's most feared -- and fearsome -- critters. He's one of just seven snake hunters authorized by the State of Florida to help clear up an invasion of thousands of non-native Burmese pythons that threatens the balance of the Everglades.

"Snakes bite me all the time," Capt. Fobb says. "They're trying to get me not to pick them up. You learn that, when they're 10 to 11 feet long, you don't pull away when they bite ... If you can just kind of hold still while they decide you're not something to eat, you're OK."

Keep reading to find out how Fobb gets the job done.

As Many As 100,000 Pythons in the Swamp
In 1979, wildlife officials were surprised to find a Burmese python -- a constrictor that can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 200 pounds -- living in the 1.5-million-acre Everglades National Park. In the intervening three decades, they've found a few more: Best estimates put the park's present python population between 30,000–100,000.

No one knows where the snakes came from. Maybe a traveling carnival went broke and turned a couple loose. Maybe terrified pet owners dumped their once-cute charges in the swamp. Maybe a group of pythons in Burma saved their pennies for a charter vacation and never returned. It doesn't matter -- they're there.

Capt. Fobb and a whole lot of other people want them gone.

Pythons Have No Natural Predators in the 'Glades.
The swamp is a perfect home for the Burmese python. The habitat is genetically familiar and there's plenty to eat -- including loads of tasty endangered species.

According to Dr. Kenneth L. Krysko, a top herpetologist at the University of Florida, "They will continue reproducing, expanding their range and consuming every appropriately sized animal they encounter."

So what's the game plan for restoring balance to the Everglades?

"Constant removal of each python encountered and trying to determine other techniques to use to capture them," Dr. Krysko says. So the best way to get those mother-lovin' snakes out of that mother-lovin' swamp is to go in and drag 'em out, one by one.

Into the Swamp!
At least once a week, Capt. Fobb loads a backpack, jumps in his truck, and heads for the mammoth swamp. Sometimes he goes at night, trekking four or five hours through the muck. Sometimes he takes his 11- and 21-year-old daughters. He is not afraid. Neither are the girls.

"I've never been attacked by an animal," Fobb says. "The thing I'm worried about is encountering other people. Perhaps they're like me -- or maybe they're up to no good. Maybe they're trying to get as far away from something as they can."

The gear is simple. A head lamp, shorts, comfortable clothes, "a pair of shoes I'm willing to get really wet and dirty," a backpack carrying a GPS unit, a camera, bags to carry out snakes ... and "a really sharp knife to make it as clean and painless as I can make it," Capt. Fobb says.

He selects an area of the swamp, drives as far in as he can, then sets out on foot, trekking 10 miles in a night. "I find it easier, you're traveling slow, it's good exercise," Fobb says. "Problem is, if you catch one, carrying him back to the truck."

That happens about every third trip. Once Fobb bagged four pythons in a single evening. Most of the snakes he catches are on the move. Camouflaged by nature, the Burmese python practically disappears into the jungle when still. "You can walk right by an animal that is 6 or 7 feet long. They can hide right there in the grass, and you'll never see them. You're fighting against millions of years of evolution."

The Secret Is to "Wear 'Em Out"
Some Capt. Fobb wannabes found that out earlier this year. Since 2000, 1,496 pythons have been removed from the Everglades. In an effort to step up the pace, the Florida Wildlife Commission held a snake-hunting class earlier this year, then turned the ersatz Fobbs loose in the swamp for a six-week python purge. The yield from the ballcap-and-beer contingent's efforts? Exactly zero.

The trick, Fobb says, is to "wear 'em out. I can sustain activity far longer than that animal can. They take a couple of lunges, they expend themselves, and then they kind of exhaust themselves. They're ambush predators. They sit and wait and squeeze."

Until this year, the state required that Fobb and other hunters euthanize the snakes where they're found. Decapitation followed by pithing -- scrambling the brain with a metal rod designed specifically for that purpose -- was the prescribed method. Now, Fobb has the option of bringing out live specimens for research purposes, which makes him very happy.

A Soft Spot for Underdogs
Fobb realizes people may think he's cruel, or heartless. Actually, he says, "I'm pretty much the antithesis of that guy. I don't want to kill those particular animals. I have a deep-seated fascination with snakes. I have a soft spot for animals that are underdogs, that are bullied. I think a lot of that is ignorance."

But as much as he loves snakes, Capt. Fobb loves the Everglades even more.

"I appreciate the Everglades for what they are. I just don't like to see some of the degradation that's taken place over the past 20 to 30 years. I'm there for the snakes -- but we don't need to keep 'em there ... We need to do what we can to limit their impact and the best way to do that is to remove the animal. One is probably too many in the grand scheme of things."

 

[snowgyre]

I don't see any fear tactics in here. I thought it was a good article that presented good information. In fact, it says that these people aren't afraid of the snakes, and that they're removing the snakes voluntarily because they care about the Everglades. What's wrong with that?

 

[RJK890]

"They will continue reproducing, expanding their range and consuming every appropriately sized animal they encounter."

I guess this was the only part that I thought may be a fear tactic.

They are not going to expand their territory beyond South Florida eating every puppy and kitten in their path, and certainly not 2/3 of America as has been "scientificly" predicted.


Also, the high estimate of 30k - 100k Pythons may be a fear tactic.

If there are that many of them in there, then howcome:

The yield from the ballcap-and-beer contingent's efforts? Exactly zero.

The rest of the article that I thought was misinformation is in bold and/or underlined in the copy/paste of the article that I posted in post #3.

It says that nobody knows how they got there, and list a few off the wall ways in which it may have happened. Like the travelling carnival, and a few others.
Including pet owners releasing them which is where the bans and restrictions get their merit.

Anybody with a half of a brain understands that it was through the destruction of Hurricane Andrew that they were released.
The focus should be on getting however many of them that are in there, out... and it may take more then the efforts of seven men.
Oh well, I guess it makes for good T.V.

As far as them not having any natural predators, I am sure many of Pythons end up being a meal for the Gators, and several other animals that are there as well.

Capt. Jeff Fobb and his daughters are not afraid of the snakes, and are removing the snakes voluntarily because they care about the Everglades.

However, I think the person that wrote the article sensationalized it somewhat. Maybe not as much as some other reports, but I think it has some fear tactics, and plenty of misinformation in it, and that is what Sen. Bill Nelson and pals run with.

I am glad that you thought it was a good article that presented good information.
Other then the stuff I pointed out, I guess it was okay.

 

[snowgyre]

As a biologist myself, I can tell you that looking for animals in the wild is extremely difficult, especially when they are cryptic, as these pythons are. For example, I work in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina, which has a very large black bear population. How many black bears did I see in my three years of working every day in remote swamp country? Exactly three. It doesn't mean that the animals are rare, simply that it's very difficult for us to find them. The Everglades are very remote, and they probably made their population estimates based upon captures per unit area around the perimeter of the park, then extrapolated those numbers across the entire park. In the absence of better data, we have to do the best we can do.

As for how the animals got released, that's up to debate. However, how they got here is no question at all: we brought them in for the pet trade. Regardless of how they escaped, they did, and we have some responsibility to claim for their presence in south Florida. I think it's important that we as hobbyists at least acknowledge this. Sometimes the only way to prevent an accident is to make sure there's no possibility of another accident happening, hence the bans. Honestly, I can understand why Florida is so worried. They have a great deal of endangered and endemic species that they are required by Federal law (the Endangered Species Act) to manage. Burmese pythons do get in the way (potentially with some, but definitely an issue with the Key Largo Woodrat) of those management efforts, so authorities have no choice but to respond somehow.

As for their range expanding? They probably could. Last year's cold snap nonwithstanding, I could eventually see Burmese pythons making their way at least up to south Georgia, and perhaps getting a stronghold in the Okefenokee Swamp. They could probably even travel west along the Gulf Coast, provided another cold snap doesn't happen for a few years.

These are just my opinions as a humble wildlife biologist getting my Ph.D. in 6 months, but I feel that we as scientists (and the data we represent) are frequently misunderstood by a lot of people. We're not out to get anybody, we're simply trying to protect the environment into perpetuity. If some of our privileges as private citizens have to be revoked to protect the environment for our children's children's children, then so be it. It's a sacrifice I am more than willing to make, even if it does have me groaning every once in a while. ;-)

 

[Rattlesnake]

Sounds to me like the state of Fla. needs to expand their efforts to rid the glades of these reptiles. (If that is even possible anymore, since they have established a frim foothold in the swamp)