Snakes on the glades – Florida launches mass python hunt

[babylonsister]

Snakes on the glades – Florida launches mass python hunt

Death of Shaiunna Hare, two, sparks state to license trappers to hunt up to 100,000 pythons on the loose owing to exotic pet fad


B199GE Adult female Burmese python (Python molurus), escaped captive, Everglades National Park, Florida. Photograph: All Canada Photos / Alamy/Alamy


The death of a Florida toddler in the coils of an 8ft (2.5 metre) Burmese python has sparked an official crackdown to eradicate a menacing population of slithering predators in the sun-drenched holiday state.

A small band of newly licensed trappers hit the trail this week of pythons living in the swampy wetlands of southern Florida. Experts believe that as many as 100,000 of the reptiles are loose in the region, in an unfortunate outcome of a fad for keeping exotic pets.

Earlier this month, a two-year-old girl, Shaiunna Hare, was strangled to death in her bedroom near Orlando by a python belonging to her mother's boyfriend. The snake had escaped its glass cage during the night and wrapped itself around the child's crib.

The tragedy galvanised Florida's politicians into action over mounting alarm about the danger posed by pythons, which grow as long as 8 metres, weigh up to 89kg (14 stone) and can eat animals as big as deer.

"It's just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to a visitor in the Florida Everglades," said Bill Nelson, a Democratic senator from the state.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/19/florida-santions-mass-python-hunt