FOXSYLVANIA

– – As if the ants at picnics weren’t enough, a family from Arkansas out for a picnic in the Everglades National Park in Florida was rudely interrupted by a 17-foot Burmese python slithering into their picnic area!  That could ruin your whole day, or at least your appetite.  The family caught the massive snake on camera, and a park ranger killed it.

Pythons are an invasive species in the United States, where the growing population of the snakes in Florida have devastated rabbit, fox, possum, and bobcat populations; even deer and alligators are not safe from them!  In January, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will host a 2013 “Python Challenge” to control the expanding python population, with a grand prize of $1,500 going to the person who kills the most pythons, and $1,000 going to the person who kills the longest specimen.  Where else but Florida, however, can you encounter a shark, a gator, a giant snake, and go to Disney World all in the same week?!

This entry was posted on December 31, 2012 at 2:35 am and is filed under animal behavior, animal occurrences, environmental, events involving animals, scalies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: burmese pythons in Florida, invasive species