Snake escape storm5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() “You don't know what's going to crawl in the truck.” “Every time I am out there, I am scared to be out there,” Concepcion tells the publication. He’s also had to dodge other hazards, including black widow and brown recluse spiders, writes Kendall Beebe of Fox 35 Orlando. Throughout his python-hunting career, Concepcion has been bitten four or five times, per the Sun Sentinel. “So, every single night from then on, I went out there-just before sundown to sunup,” he tells the publication. This year, however, he shifted strategies after finding several hatchlings in a levee. Usually, he uses his truck lights to spot snakes that are looking for warmth from the road. I love to see it grow, and these snakes aren’t letting that happen.”Ĭoncepcion tells Bill Kearney of the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he’s been hunting pythons for about five years. “It’s all about our ecosystem,” Concepcion tells NewsNation's Morning in America. “Human detection and removal are the most efficient and effective tools in the toolbox right now.”Īltogether, about 1,000 participants from 32 states in the U.S., Canada and Latvia culled 231 pythons this year. Per the challenge rules, hunters can be disqualified for killing a python inhumanely or for killing a native snake. “The challenge is designed to remove as many pythons from the area as possible,” Michael Kirkland, a biologist with the South Florida Water Management District, told CNN’s Sara Smart in August. ![]() Matthew Concepcion, left, with his cousin, holding a nearly 16-foot python.Ĭameron Concepcion via the South Florida Sun Sentinel To make matters worse, the voracious snakes breed quickly: Females can lay 50 to 100 eggs at a time, per the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits and foxes virtually disappeared. Between 19, raccoon populations dropped 99.3 percent, opossums plummeted 98.9 percent and bobcats declined 87.5 percent in the southern region of the Everglades. The pythons have since gobbled up mammals, birds and reptiles, even preying on animals as large as deer and alligators. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed a python breeding facility, and subsequent storms have likely continued to let snakes escape their enclosures and get loose in the Everglades. ![]() Experts believe that owners released the snakes after they grew too large to handle, and the reptiles began breeding in the wild. Between 19, about 99,000 pythons were brought over. from Asia as part of the exotic pet trade. The ten-day competition was created in 2013 to help rid the Everglades of the invasive snakes, which have few natural predators and are decimating native species.īurmese pythons were introduced into the U.S. “Still on cloud nine,” Concepcion tells Jessica Vallejo of NBC 6 South Florida. Nineteen-year-old Matthew Concepcion killed 28 invasive snakes this year during the annual Burmese python hunt in Florida, earning him the $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |