NAPLES, Fla. — Patrick Riley, Naples, FL Daily

For Burmese pythons — one of South Florida’s most notorious invasive species — few meals are too big. But new research by scientists suggests the snake might be snacking above its weight class.

While tracking pythons in Collier Seminole State Park in Collier County, a group of wildlife biologists from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and land managers from the state park stumbled upon an unsettling discovery: An 11-foot Burmese python that had devoured a white-tailed deer fawn weighing more than the snake.

The 2015 finding, which has since been peer-reviewed and is set to be published in the Herpetological Review this month, is believed to be the largest python-to-prey ratio documented to date, with the snake weighing 31.5 pounds and the deer 35 pounds, said Ian Bartoszek, wildlife biologist and science coordinator for the Conservancy.

“It almost did not compute,” he said during an announcement of the findings in the Conservancy’s snake laboratory Thursday.

More: Man crosses paths with two pythons on way to pick up takeout

More: Python hunt fuels fashion for Fla. business

“We were sitting there just trying to process that an animal this size could get its head around what turned out to be a deer. It’s surreal to see that in the field.”

When the researchers moved the snake out of the wild into an open area that day, the stressed python began to regurgitate the deer, Bartoszek said.

But had the snake’s meal been uninterrupted, the python would have eventually fully digested the fawn, which was less than 6 months old, he said. The python was later humanely euthanized.

Burmese pythons, which came to South Florida via the pet trade beginning in the late 1970s and were eventually accidentally or intentionally released into the wild, have had the delicate local ecosystem in a chokehold for years.

But the Conservancy’s recent discovery could spell more bad news for Florida’s already endangered panther population, Bartoszek said.

“White-tailed deer are the primary prey for our state and federally protected Florida panther,” he said. “That’s panther food.”

With Burmese pythons capable of reaching near 20 feet in length, finding a relatively small specimen successfully devouring a fawn heavier than the snake was “jaw-dropping,” Bartoszek said.

“It showed my team and myself what we were actually dealing with out there, what this python is capable of,” he said.

To be sure, Bartoszek said, the pythons, which are apex predators, have been known to swallow large animals, including alligators. What stunned the scientists was the predator-to-prey ratio, he said.

“We know that they’ll take adult deer now and then,” Bartoszek said. “If they’re tapping into young deer, then that just makes me a little bit worried that there will be additional impacts that we haven’t even considered yet.”

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Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/opinion/ci_31652011/snakes-plane-emotional-support#ixzz56YvYuSUv

WORRIED ABOUT SNAKES? Call 1-866-263 WILD!

Or easily contact us by clicking here. 

 Nuisance Wildlife Removal, Inc. is very well known in the community as the GO-TO expert with the highest experience level in solving difficult insect and pest infestations efficiently and easily. We employ advanced technology such as thermographic cameras and Go-pro technology. This reduces the amount of damage to your structure and this will reduce the overall cost of your project.  

Avoiding a Snake Encounter

To avoid snakes is really a rather difficult task. The main suggestion given is to try to keep the pet indoors as much a possible during the season when snakes are highly active.  According to the school of veterinary medicine that is April -October.  However this is likely very difficult to impossible for many pet owners.

Well, as far as snakes are concerned- keep in mind that most snakes want to be left alone… However when a curious pup comes along sniffing every hole in the ground, tree trunk, and leaf pile, BOOM they can get a strike from a serpentine creature that neither of you were planning on.

It is possible that your dog would be out playing when such an encounter occurs– and so, you might suddenly find your pet in distress, and not doing well. But, if you ARE with your pup walking on a trail, etc when a snake bite occurs.. Try to get a picture of the snake for reference. If your pet has been bitten, seek medical care for it immediately.

If your pet is acting unwell — the animal might be in shock. The following actions are recommended to treat your pet and keep them safe. You must act quickly to give your dog the best chance for a full recovery.

EXAMINE

Examine the dog or cat, by looking him over closely. Probe the back and down the legs.

Take note of any swollen areas.

—if you do NOT see a laceration, scratch etc., the culprit causing the issue is not visible so, therefore, could be a bite.

Carry the animal to a clean smooth area such as a tile floor, where you have good lighting.

Examine and look for puncture wounds they will likely have blood coming out.

If it has been bitten by a venomous snake, the swelling will be apparent and move rapidly up the leg.

Nuisance Wildlife Removal, Inc. is your expert for snake removal in Sarasota County.

Call today to talk with a professional wildlife technician.

For more information or a FREE estimate call 1-866-263-WILD or 941-729-2103.

SOME SYMPTOMS

Animal is not acting like theirself

For more info from a veterinary source click here 

Nuisance Wildlife Removal, Inc. is very well known in the community as the GO-TO expert with the highest experience level in solving difficult insect and pest infestations efficiently and easily. We employ advanced technology such as thermographic cameras and Go-pro technology. This reduces the amount of damage to your structure and this will reduce the overall cost of your project.  

By George F. Will: Snakes on a plane for emotional support?

WASHINGTON — When next you shoehorn yourself into one of America’s ever-shrinking airline seats, you might encounter a new wrinkle in the romance of air travel. You might be amused, or not, to discover a midsize — say, 7-feet long — boa constrictor named Oscar coiled contentedly, or so you hope, in the seat next to you. Oscar is an “emotional-support animal.” He belongs to the person in the seat on the other side of him, and he is a manifestation of a new item, or the metastasizing of an old item, on America’s menu of rights. Fortunately, the federal government is on the case, so you can relax and enjoy the flight.

TO READ OUR POST ON THE 4 NON – NATIVE VENOMOUS SNAKES THAT LIVE IN  FLORIDA CLICK HERE 

The rapid recent increase of emotional-support animals in airplane cabins is an unanticipated consequence of a federal law passed with the best of intentions, none of which pertained to Dexter the peacock, more about whom anon. In 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development told providers of public housing that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) mandates “reasonable accommodations” for persons who require “assistance animals.”

The Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 allows access to animals trained to provide emotional support. Federal guidelines say airlines must allow even emotional-support animals that have a potential to “offend or annoy” passengers, but that airlines are allowed to — let us not sugarcoat this — discriminate against some “unusual” animals.

Yet a New York photographer and performance artist named, according to The Associated Press, Ventiko recently was denied the right to board her Newark-to-Los Angeles flight with her “emotional-support peacock,” for whom Ventiko had bought a ticket.

And there is a 29-year-old traveler who insists that she cannot “think about life without” Stormy, her emotional-support parakeet. So, if Oscar’s owner says Oscar provides support, and the owner lawyers up …

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In contemporary America, where whims swiftly become necessities en route to becoming government-guaranteed entitlements, it is difficult to draw lines. Besides, lines are discouraged lest someone (or some species?) be “stigmatized” by being “marginalized.” The line JetBlue has drawn dehumanizes snakes. Yes, they are not technically human, but don’t quibble. Anyway, soon enough there will be a lobby (“Rights for Reptiles”?), and lobbies are precursors to entitlements.

JetBlue is attempting to fly between the Scylla of passengers discomforted by a duck waddling down the aisle (even though it is wearing a diaper; this has happened more than once) and the Charybdis of animal advocates who are hypersensitive to speciesism, aka anti-pet fascism.

JetBlue says that “unusual animals” such as “snakes, other reptiles, ferrets, rodents and spiders” are verboten, even as emotional-support animals.

Southwest rather sternly says that passengers accompanied by emotional-support animals had better have papers from credentialed experts certifying “a mental or emotional disability recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — Fourth Edition.” But the DSM already accords the status of disability to almost every imaginable human trait or quirk and is eager to imagine new ones.

Delta experienced a nearly one-year doubling of what it delicately calls “incidents” (urinating, defecating, biting). “Farm poultry,” hedgehogs and creatures with tusks are unwelcome on Delta, which is going to be alert regarding the booming market for forged documents attesting to emotional neediness. The Association of Flight Attendants is pleased, perhaps because one of its members was asked to give a dog oxygen because the dog’s owner said it was having a panic attack.

Now, let us, as the lawyers say, stipulate a few things. Quadrupeds, and no-peds like Oscar, have done a lot less damage to the world than have bipeds, and often are better mannered than many of today’s human air travelers. Animals can be comforting to anyone and can be therapeutic to the lonely, the elderly with symptoms of senescence, and soldiers and others suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies have purported to show that people living with pets derive myriad benefits, including lower cholesterol.

But the proliferation of emotional-support animals suggests that a cult of personal fragility is becoming an aspect of the quest for the coveted status of victim. The cult is especially rampant in colleges and universities, which increasingly embrace the therapeutic mission of assuaging the anxieties of the emotionally brittle. There, puppies are deployed to help students cope with otherwise unbearable stresses, such as those caused by final exams or rumors of conservatism.

George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/opinion/ci_31652011/snakes-plane-emotional-support#ixzz56YvYuSUv

WORRIED ABOUT SNAKES? Call 1-866-263 WILD!

Or easily contact us by clicking here. 

 Nuisance Wildlife Removal, Inc. is very well known in the community as the GO-TO expert with the highest experience level in solving difficult insect and pest infestations efficiently and easily. We employ advanced technology such as thermographic cameras and Go-pro technology. This reduces the amount of damage to your structure and this will reduce the overall cost of your project.  

But recently, a number of snake catchers and venomous snake owners have found themselves in the hospital at an increasing rate — and it has a lot to do with a common misconception.

William Pledger, an experienced snake catcher from Gympie, was recently called to a property in the rural Queensland town to get rid of an eastern brown snake.

WORRIED ABOUT SNAKES? Call 1-866-263 WILD!

Eastern browns have some of the most toxic venom in the world.

Speaking to the Gympie Times, Mr Pledger realised he’d made a mistaken when he left “too much of him to turn around” when he was trying to rescue him from a garden bed.

The metre-long snake whipped around and latched onto his hand.

“I didn’t feel the bite at all,” he told the paper, referring to the snake’s fangs that had pierced his knuckle.

One of Melbourne’s most prominent snake catchers, Raymond Hoser, known as the “Snake Man”, has hit out at the term “dry bite”, calling them “rare as rockinghorse s**t”.

“Dozens of snake handlers have died thinking they were dry bites. These people getting bitten thinking there’s no pain but they just collapse and die,” he told news.com.au.

“Dry bites aren’t common. I want to know who came up with the bulls**t over dry bites.”

Mr Hoser, who has been running the educational snake show Snakebusters since 2006, said the chance of a dry bite “is basically zero”.

Mr Hoser said Queensland has a bad track record when it comes to snake catchers having accidents.

“Queensland is the worst. There’s handlers teaching other handlers who have no expertise whatsoever and they go out and catch snakes with metal tongs. It’s not good,” he said.

Despite Mr Pledger’s harrowing experience with the eastern brown, he said his eyes have been open to the risks.

“It’s good to get a wake-up call every now and again, but I don’t want one like this for a few more years,” he said.

CREDIT: news.com.au

 Nuisance Wildlife Removal, Inc. is very well known in the community as the GO-TO expert with the highest experience level in solving difficult insect and pest infestations efficiently and easily. We employ advanced technology such as thermographic cameras and Go-pro technology. This reduces the amount of damage to your structure and this will reduce the overall cost of your project.