Why folks want to sneak exotic pets into Florida, I don't know. But they do. Like the Burmese python. It's estimated that there are 150,000 pythons in the Everglades killing off our native species. How would you solve this problem? OK, here's what we Floridians did. We held a contest to see how many hunters could kill how many Burmese pythons in a certain time frame. We called it The Python Challenge.
Despite the heat and wildlife of the unforgiving Everglades, along with armed contestants, nobody was hurt.
By the way, Florida isn't the first to do this. In India they offered a bounty on cobra but the plan backfired when cobra breeders emerged. I could have told them this would happen: Many years ago when we had a problem with flies in the house my husband, Ken, offered our older son a nickel for every fly he killed. Being highly motivated our ten years old son quietly opened the back door!
The Python Challenge is over. Gun toting men in camouflage came from everywhere to participate. I understand our congressman, Bill Nelson was one of them. I like this quote from one of the hunters: "Think like a snake, become a snake and you'll catch a snake." So how many of the 150,000 Burmese pythons do you think they took out? The answer is 68.
But Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florid Wildlife Commission, was quoted as saying, "I definitely anticipate we'll do something of the nature again."
Good for you, Nick.
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