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One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

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Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#151

Post by dreamcompiler »

mminer237 wrote: post #41

This might be a bit gruesome, but why not shoot the snakes the on site? That seems way easier and faster than physically wrestling dangerous snakes sometimes bigger than yourself, throwing them in your truck, and shooting them in your garage. Is it just the solemnity? The chance of missing and it escaping and the difficulty of wrestling with a gun?

You want the snake under control in a well-lit environment and you don't want to miss and cause the snake pain or worse--use an instrument that can injure a bystander.

Physically wrestling pythons is not really dangerous if you know what you're doing.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#152

Post by dreamcompiler »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #6

Introducing natural predators for pythons like the king cobra might be a more scalable solution. It’s very hard to shoot all the members of an invasive species.

Umm, no. The only elapid species wild in the US is the coral snake and beyond that the only venomous snakes we have are cottonmouths, copperheads, and several species of rattlesnake. That's the list. The US does not need any new species of venomous snakes.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#153

Post by [deleted] »

psalzzz wrote: post #97
kkielhofner wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They get paid per verified kill: https://www.sfwmd.gov/our-work/python-program No idea how it actually works but shooting them where they are has to be tough to verify.

You can't shoot them. You must kill them by the guidelines from FWC. You're not allowed to run around with guns and shoot at the animals.

[deleted]

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#155

Post by anthk »

TechDebtDevin wrote: post #112
nanolith wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shooting invasive species is definitely legal in Florida assuming that you have permission of the land owner or are otherwise in a location where shooting is allowed (i.e. not in a municipality that bans the gunfire). It has to be done humanely: if you hit the invasive animal, you are responsible for dispatching it as quickly as possible. If you don't dispatch the animal, you can easily run foul of animal cruelty law…

I say we just give Florida back to Spain and call it a day.

No refunds.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#156

Post by rad_gruchalski »

ceejayoz wrote: post #9
spacebanana7 wrote: post #6

Introducing natural predators for pythons like the king cobra might be a more scalable solution. It’s very hard to shoot all the members of an invasive species.

“No, that's the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.“

In Florida? Good luck with that.

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#157

Post by lq9AJ8yrfs »

munificent wrote: post #94
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #2

I wonder why they're not using thermal cameras. Snakes are ectothermic, but they still show up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOL0RocIUI0

Thermal cameras have a fairly narrow FOV. When you're moving at (albeit slow) driving speeds and trying to see everything around you, trying to look through a thermal camera and scan around would probably be too slow and end up costing you more time. Also consider that there are plenty of other native snakes the same size as a small python that will show up as a false positive on a thermal camera.

Lenses are a thing in the thermal spectra, but you have a point that they are very expensive if your desired objective doesn't coincide with someone else's bulk use case. They are also typically hard to care for and some of them are toxic.

For magnification at least, doesnt help with hunting pythons probably, you can use the focusing lenses for laser cutters, which typically work in thermal wavelengths, to turn a handheld thermal camera into a microscope. Or is it a "milliscope" i guess owing to the limit imposed by the coarser wavelegths.

I wonder how much optical solutions could be solved with the "wrong" lens paired with a well trained transformer or similar modern AI. If google or apple can deblur your family photos is it unrealistic to think you could deblur a thermal image acquired using found lenses?

Crystallography algorithms might even work out of the box? Or be adaptable hopefully?

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#158

Post by psalzzz »

hinkley wrote: post #148
psalzzz wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they should be eliminated immediately. Finding a living mammal in the everglades is becoming rare with these snakes destroying the ecosystem. I spent several days hunting for Pythons earlier this year and didn't see even a single deer or rabbit.

But one clutch of eggs will replace the pythons you kill and then some. A neutered python puts predation pressure on the rest. Creates crowding.

We need to relieve the pressure. Pythons in the everglades have ate 90% of the mammals in the 'glades. The bigger they grow, the more they consume. While they may also eat a few other pythons, it's not a common occurrence.

If only we could make a virus or alter their DNA to wipe them out ;-)

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#159

Post by devoutsalsa »

kortex wrote: post #76
thfuran wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has to be easier to get a dead python into your truck than a live one, right?

I have never tried to shoot a snake but I imagine their high aspect ratio makes getting a critical hit on them challenging, compared to just "yoinking" them. Garret Galvin @fishingarrett has made a name for himself yoinking all sorts of critters in the wild but in particular seems to be targeting invasive pythons in the Everglades. He's very entertaining if you like nature stuff, he's like Steve Irwin's spiritual suc…

“Hey look, it’s a tokay gecko. Yoink! Can you tell me where to find that twenty footer?”

Re: One of Florida's most lethal python hunters

#160

Post by baud147258 »

nojvek wrote: post #125
TechDebtDevin wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I say we just give Florida back to Spain and call it a day.

I don’t think Spain can handle Florida anymore.

>I don’t think Spain can handle Florida anymore.

I don't think Spain ever could handle Florida

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