With the killing? Or against?

mudflats · 11-01-04, 10:00 PM

Exotics in south florida, nothing new. But should these animals be killed ogishly? Of course not in my opinion, and hopefully everyone elses. A few species of lizards breeding and abundant and exotic to florida are, the green iguana, the nile monitor and the knight anole etc etc.. Few snakes are the burmese python, rock python, green anaconda, javan wart snake etc etc. The lsit goes on and on and on. Some thoughts are, There exotics, no right to be in florida, kill them who cares. Well shucks, illegal aliens dont belong here and niether do most snow birds ( make traffic horrible) should we slaughter them? I myself have seen wardens and you can go up and ask one yourself from glades national park, cut the head off of huge 10-12 foot burms, shooting them is done constantly( yeah a few bullets is going to kill a adult burm, mosquitos are worse here). Sure they dont belong here but do we really need to kill them? Fact of the matter is...THERE HERE TO STAY! Killing acouple a night isnt going to decrease populations drastically, its just barbarick. Florida's exotics are considered natives in most cases. Every anole you see are not from here except the green. But we see browns etc. as native lizards, same with knight anoles with locals in miami. I mean basically i am asking what do you all think? Is this right or wrong? I dont see how killing animals because they dont belong here is right. How about we go out and kill 400 brown anoles, that'll teach em'. Heh, no it wont. There here to stay. Sure they kill our native wildlife but did they ask to be put in the Everglades. No they did not, It was bob down the street that had a daughter and it became to dangerous. And its hard to get rid of a 15 foot snake, so why not let it go in the giant swamp land. Idiots have done this, these animals do not need to suffer and be killed in my opinion. Just like an old women form up north, here on a summer vacation. Feeds mr. gator in the back some left overs, one day the gator gets alittle to happy during "feeding time" and whamo there goes here leg. So the gator gets treated like a dragon and gets killed. Same principal. Your comments please. thanks

CamHanna · 11-02-04, 05:39 AM

They're not native. They displace native wildlife. Kill'em all!

As for the 'Snowbirds', they got there by their own means (i.e. without being introduced by another species) so who's to say that they don't belong. In such densities though they become destructive. I support deer culls to control density, but that is a ridiculous comparison.

Cam

BoidKeeper · 11-02-04, 07:45 AM

Quote:

They're not native. They displace native wildlife. Kill'em all!

Yup.

JimmyDavid · 11-02-04, 08:04 AM

IF we don't understand nature, let's just stay out of it. A flower also needs a bee to carry "alien" polen to other places. Perhaps it took many years of evolution so that man could bring the (let's say) burmese python to Florida, Where she will do well and live on (maybe it was meant that way, all along). She will replace other predators?!? Too bad, it's natural history in the making.
Recently it was found that there are no original human races native to America! They found a passage from Asia and travelled there. Tribes from the Amazon are just a bunch of relocated Mongolians or so. What changes must they have caused in the environment with their arrival, we don't know.
All things considered, this has been the natural history of planet earth all this time. Traveling and settling! Directly or
indirectly (like the flowers).

mudflats · 11-02-04, 11:50 AM

You all can say "kill'em all" now because your way up there in canada. But i can bet you if you where here i florida and you saw a wild burmese, you wouldnt do so. An by saying snowbirds (tourists) it was a joke. But i would like to see both of you encounter a large 12-13 footer and do what you refered to doing. I seriously doubt that.

bistrobob85 · 11-02-04, 12:24 PM

Very interesting question... I dont think i'm for a slaughter but i'm pretty much against the exotics breeding outside of their own ecosystem... It's actually a pretty good thing we don't have so many exotics roaming free in canada, well anyways they end up dying in the winter... This problem comes from irresponsible herpers leaving their animals and that's the real problem! There wouldn't be any wild exotics if some idiots didn't release them around! Those people are hearthless and mindless of nature, i dislike them with a deep passion.

phil.

Ontario_herper · 11-02-04, 12:34 PM

I've caught 2 species of large python "up here" in the wilds of Ontario. I took both exotic snakes home with me. If I had decided that there was no suitable home to palce them with, I certainly would not have left them to remain "wild". The most likely option would have been to put them in the freezer.

I wouldn't have been happy about having to kill these two snakes. But I'm also not the PETA type... I have no real problem with seeing these two snakes (or other exotics) put to death to avoid disturbing the natural swing of thing.

Tim_Cranwill · 11-02-04, 12:58 PM

I think they need to be killed.

Sad but true...

Look at what's happened in Australia with the cane toads, rabbits, foxes and cats just to name a few. It can be a major problem. It seems rather harsh to say "kill 'em all!" but that's pretty much what needs to be done. What else can you do, transfer them back to their "native" habitat? Not a chance.

Tough subject... that's for sure.

mudflats · 11-02-04, 01:52 PM

This is why i have a problem with you all saying Kill'em all. You simply can not! You cant, it is not possible. There are to many cane toads here in florida to kill, or burmese pythons. Killing a few a night will not to crap. So why do it at all. I do have a problem with hearing of a anaconda constricting a large gator almost to death. Its not these exotics fault, its the idiots that let them go etc.. Why should they suffer? But to contradict myself it isnt the natives fault that the exotics got loose, Why should they suffer? lol, There is no right answer, I mean the right answer would be to terminate all the exotics, but we simply Can not. I mean these wardens are having truck fulls of burmese killed each week. The one night me father and i obtained 4 of ours, where out of the back of a truck. There must have been 20-30 piled up, not small guys either, but 10-15 footers, all tied up like gators. This is wrong, and although i am against exotics, I dont see this going anywhere. The numbers we kill each week are staggering, yet there populations are going strong. Its to late.

bistrobob85 · 11-02-04, 02:12 PM

It's not too late, the only thing that should be done is to block the burmese imports... keep up the work, even if it's tons of gore, remember that the massacre is not about killing, but about leaving the native species living and out of harm...

bistrobob85 · 11-02-04, 02:12 PM

It's not too late, the only thing that should be done is to block the burmese imports... keep up the work, even if it's tons of gore, remember that the massacre is not about killing, but about leaving the native species living and out of harm...

bistrobob85 · 11-02-04, 02:13 PM

Sorry, it double posted for some reason...

Gary D. · 11-02-04, 02:36 PM

Ok, well It may be too late to kill them all, but when you consider that over the life of that animal it will consume X many indiginous animals, breed and create X many more to again consume more indiginous animals. The best solution is to eliminate as many as is possible to reduce the stress on the native populations.

Now admittedly I do not live there and all the information is not before me first hand, but I personally am not convinced that the lager constrictors are that much of a problem in the grand scheme of things. They typically will not become THE apex predator as it has been shown that the alligators maintain that roll regardless of the pythons. They typically feed on the nutria which in themselves are a problem and thus don't out compete such indiginous herps such as the indigos because of the vast numbers of available prey. Juvinile pythons are also being predated by local wildlife such as birds, racoons, alligators, etc.

Again the green iguana occupies it's own niche which does not drastically affect indiginous species.

Nile monitors are another story, as they will eagerly eat any native species or eggs thereof which they come across and are capable of exploiting all strata. Infact in this situation python presence may reduce the impact of the monitors.

GD

mudflats · 11-02-04, 02:44 PM

Gary D. you are pretty much right on target. They dont impose a major threat, speaking the burmese. But although they do eat the swamp rats, rabbits etc.. They do pose a threat to the other wildlife such as other birds. The green anacodnas are really ni problem being theres not to many of them, Yet. Nile monitors are a big oopsie, buit are not in the everglades,there more central florida. Bistrobob85, it is definetly to damn late to extemrinate all the burms. An to stop the importing and breeding of burms will never happen. Not to many people here are opening there eyes to how big this problme can lead to.But id ont think are attitude needs to be, They took our homes, Kill'em all.

Gary D. · 11-02-04, 03:01 PM

I would say that there should be an an environmental impact assessment done to ascertain the damage created by the pythons. Naturally killing a large number is required (which is currently the norm anyway) to ascertain population density figures and inspection of stomach contents as a vital first step. After which it can be discerned wheather or not the expendature of resources spent on trying to control the population(s) is necessary.

If I lived in FLA I'd be all over that.

GD