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Money Python: Florida Contest Offers Rewards In 2013 Everglades Python Hunt
Press2ToContinue writes "Dubbed the Python Challenge, the month-long contest will award $1,000 for the longest python and $1,500 for the most pythons caught between Jan. 12 and Feb. 10 in any of four hunting areas north of Everglades National Park and at the Big Cypress National Preserve. Pythons have been spreading through the Everglades for years, posing a threat to the sensitive ecosystem by preying on native species. Some estimates put their number in the tens of thousands. Last year, 272 pythons were removed from the wild, state figures show."
Looks like they're off to meet their makes.
how many Simpsons snake references will there be?!
Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope, and nice red uniforms - Oh damn!
Florida should read about the Cobra effect.
They should just put a bounty on the snakes like they used to do for wolves and mountain lions. $10 for each snake brought in would make an industry out of killing them. If we can drive species to extinction for profit surely we can eliminate these snakes. Make=ing it legal to sell snake meat would help too.
Made me think of the puzzle website I went through while learning the programing language. Any puzzle lovers out there interested can find it here http://www.pythonchallenge.com/ It can be done with little or no knowledge of the language as long as you don't mind reading the docs.
They're sort of... living legends... An alpha release snake.
Later species are much more streamlined, and have dropped some of their dual organs to make room. (Newer snakes only have one lung, for example. well - they usually have a second joke-sized vestigial lung as well). Fat snakes like pythons and boas have two, still.
Another neat thing about pythons is they have little.. claw like things, near their exhaust pipe. Remnants of their hind legs. :)
Reptiles lost in time...
I understand why they have to go in Florida (which seems hopeless at this point, anyhow), though.
The first time I saw a Burmese Python (like those in Florida) in person I was just amazed at the size of the thing... A snake that weighs more than me.
Sent from my PDP-11
$1500 for a month's worth of effort? I'll pass. That doesn't even put you above the poverty line.
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
Who the fuck cares anymore.
So who is going to determine what this is? Greenpeace? The Animal Rights Coalition? The head has to be attached. I was thinking of blowing it head off at 50 feet.
http://www.python.org/
Also very long python there ....
Did someone confuse Python for Python ?
Extra Points for "Profit!"
Why is Snark Required?
#!/usr/bin/python
def main():
raise RuntimeError( 'the python' );
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
#!/usr/bin/python
def main():
raise RuntimeError( 'on top of' );
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
#!/usr/bin/python
def main():
raise RuntimeError( 'your monitor' );
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
#!/usr/bin/python
def main():
raise RuntimeError( 'will explode' );
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
#!/usr/bin/python
def main():
raise RuntimeError( 'in five seconds' );
return 0
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Said no one.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
And they get double rewards for convincing the captured programmer to start developing in PHP!
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
When I saw the article at first, I immediately thought this had to do with the Python programming language - since this is Slashdot. Boy, was I wrong. Hmmmm... Maybe the editor just saw the word 'python' and didn't actually read TFA? Probably, since this is Slashdot.
"Those beasts paled in comparison to Ming the tiger, who was discovered living in a Manhattan apartment in 2003. Ming's owner, Antoine Yates, unwittingly alerted police to the tiger's existence when he showed up at a hospital with deep bite marks on his leg. Hospital officials didn't believe the story that a dog had caused the bite. When police went to check Yates' apartment, they heard growling through the door." Cops also found (what else?) an alligator in the guy's apartment.
Oh Whacking Day
Oh Whacking Day
Our hallowed snake skull-cracking day
We'll break their backs
Gouge out their eyes
Their evil hearts we'll pulverize
Oh Whacking Day
Oh Whacking Day
May God bestow his grace on thee
Life imitates art.
How do you catch a python? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7967587.stm It helps they're nonvenomous
http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
Then I saw it was just snakes in The River of Grass. How come nobody is hunting them to extinction to make cowboy boots?
"No fear. No envy. No meanness." Liam Clancy
A few years ago I was doing some work in the Everglades National Park and during a pre-work briefing the Chief of Resource Management (person in charge of protecting everything) basically told us "if you see one of those snakes on the road, run it over and then back up over it to make sure".
Passionately Indifferent
Put a bounty on them, or at least let people kill as many as they wish. Requiring a permit to kill something you want to exterminate is stupid. Do you need a license to kill rats in Florida?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I grew up eating rattlers at the county fair, which taste like chicken and aren't bad with Shake and Bake and ketchup. Pythons? Test 'em for mercury. If they pass, they're dinner.
I had a friend who was a National Park Service Law Enforcement Ranger. He spent about 9 months down in the Everglades a few years back and was issued two shotguns. One was the typical duty shotgun for a cop, the other was set up for "snake hunting" and they were given the orders to KILL all snakes they found. If it was a python/boa constrictor/etc. it was to be shot 2x to make sure it was DEAD.
He told me that the estimates were way off, and that every day he could have gone out doing nothing but killing snakes all day. The snakes breed like crazy there, and can and will destroy the local habitat if not checked. These snakes should surely have a proper disposal plan once people are tired of them, and should not be released into the wild. I say we start a bounty program like what Louisiana has on the Nutria rat. You buy a permit and get x amount per kill. There will always be those that will cheat the system and breed them, in addition to those who will try to game the system as a way to make a living. We just need to plan on that and work around it.
Did you not read the parent post about the "Cobra Effect"? $10 for a snake would not only make an industry out of killing them, it would create an industry of people who would start to breed snakes for profit.. and who would then let them go in to the wild if they were closed down.
They're invading our waters, more importantly reef habitats. The bigger fish haven't recognized them as prey yet as they gobble up all the smaller fish. My local dive shop is paying $5 a head for them and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation has issued an open season for them, no fishing license required. Good eatin from what I've heard. Tastes like hogfish, just use a paralyzer tip and cut the spines off without poking yourself.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
I guess I'm the only one who read that as, "Monty Python" Florida Contest Offers Rewards...."
1. Spark a hunting spree that has no hope of eradicating them.
2. Apply selective pressure to breed unhuntable pythons.
3. ???
4. Profit!
Or am I missing something?
perl -e 'fork||print for split//,"hahahaha"'
Send in a Gatoroid. I'd say it's Syfylicious, but there aren't any WWE actors.
[Checked a mirror, yup, canines.]
I didn't choose, but I am an animal. By most definitions, yes, we are in fact animals. We have all the instincts of carnivores, an urge to stalk, an urge to hunt and yes, an urge to kill prey.
Now if I stalk around the house and pounce on things, my family looks at me a little funny because of society or whatever. But if I buy a permit and a bow and go after deer, that's totally acceptable.
If I'm wandering around the savanna in my PJs and get taken out by a pride of lions, then nobody is going to be blaming the lions, calling them gutless cowards, asking them how brave they're going to be when somebody kills them. They're lions, that's what they do and we're perfectly fine with that.
If anything, it's human hunters that are on the highroad here. We have rules about when and how we're allowed to kill other animals (and each other.) We're at the top of a food chain, and rather than just killing whatever we can, we restrict ourselves. I can't think of any other predator that does that. That's kind of an intelligent thing and telling a bunch of gun toting predators that they have to do things your way kind of takes guts.
So yeah, pretty much the opposite of everything you said. Wait, were you being deliberately ironic? It'd be funny if you'd included something that actually had ... well humor in it.
This is NOT news for nerds.
Spread a rumor that python meat is an aphrodisiac. They'll be extinct in no time.
Have gnu, will travel.
You don't need a license to set rat traps. Or to throw lampreys you pry off onto the beach. Or to scrub zebra mussels off your docks. It really ought to be open season on any pest species that is disrupting the ecosystem. Pythons and pigs, we ought to cull them as much and as often we can. We may never eradicate them, but we can at least try to keep their populations low. In fact I would argue that a bounty should be offered rather than charging for permits. Might help offset the cost of lead-free bullets when pig hunting.
About the python problem when there is a 10.00 dollar reward for each one. and then you will see some real action.
We have all the instincts of carnivores, an urge to stalk, an urge to hunt and yes, an urge to kill prey.
So what? We have animal instincts to mate whith anyone who can't fight us off, murder rivals or children if they're in the way and steal food or anything else if we want to. The whole point about civilisation is that we place limits on these things.
Anyway, there is no need or opportunity for most people to hunt for food, and most people who don't live in the countryside in fact have no interest in hunting.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
came for the freezing gorillas, wasn't disappointed.
somebody should build a python termination robot, they could call it the pythonator, and it should be programmed in python^W ruby.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
OOPK is a "real" thing.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Enjoy your soy burger.
I can see it now, Discovery Channel is going to have "Python Hunters", "World's Deadliest Pythons", "Florida Snake Charmers", "Swamp Snake"...
I always find it so ironic when people consider the solution to protecting wildlife to be killing other wildlife. They never explain why the individuals of the other species don't have the right to live and be left in peace just as much as the ones that are being "protected".
This will not slow down the snakes. Instead, they need some reason for hunters to continue going after them. The state would be wise to approach several tanneries within the state and offering to buy various products made with the python. These should be products that can and will be sold on the open market. The idea is to stimulate the tanneries to create sellable products with these and then allowing free enterprise to go after them.
The nice side effect of this, is that they are creating a number of jobs: tannery, local hunting, etc. as opposed to simply sending money to hunters who will then sell the hide to China.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
He must've gotten confused and ended up in the Everglade's!
Dude, these things are an invasive species that is fucking up the environment. They're not being killed for sport, it's to prevent them from decimating the local wildlife.
I wish I could pay someone to remove Python. It may be easy to code in, but it is a bitch and a half for system administrators.
Fuck you Guido, fuck you.
Sell it to us chinese, we will buy to make herbal snake soup... and we will pay premiums for them!
Yup. Thanks for agreeing with me.
Just because people have urges to act like animals, doesn't mean we should. In fact we have rules and laws to keep us from giving into those urges. That was part of my point.
I suspect that you drew that one phrase from the larger context because you wanted to make the point that hunting and killing animals is bad, but rather you made the point that it is unnecessary because you prefer an honest tone instead of a belligerent one. I'd agree with you on both counts actually in most situations. Personally, I don't own a hunting gun (or bow) or hunt for sport because my environment (urban) doesn't make it a useful activity. But I add the qualifier "in most situations" because it isn't always true. You added the qualifier "most" as well and I suspect for the same reason.
The featured article is about the attempt to limit the damage of a non-native invasive species. In this particular instance, the only practical method of limiting the damage is to kill as many of the invasive animals as possible. I am not arguing that it is a good thing to kill them, but rather that in order to preserve the environment we treasure, it is an unfortunate necessity. I admit that I can see the appeal of hunting even if it isn't a strong appeal to me personally and therefore I can see how appealing to hunters to participate is a useful methodology.
I did grow up in a rural environment and was and remain exposed to many hunters. For many hunters, the actual kill is more of a proof of your skill as a hunter than a necessity, but it does provide the benefit of food for many of them. In trade for investments in time, getting a hunting license, requisite training and certification, and the necessary equipment, many of them provide a year's worth of meat for their families with their skills. I can also tell you from personal experience that the challenge of planning a hunt and the process of stalking is something that appeals to most of them. I actually managed to stalk within arms reach of a deer once, and it was thrilling. I had no desire or plan to kill anything because there was no benefit for me, yet the confirmation of my prowess and being able to see them so closely in the wild is one of my fonder memories.
That's a secondary point though. My first and hopefully less subtle point was that it is absurd to draw the conclusions or make the generalities found in the post I to which I was replying.