[2Jakes]

Since you say your are located at the North Pole, just WTF kind of gators do you have? The mechanized ones don't count.

Cold tolerant gators....

[Sanely Eccentric]

Sorry SE...the title should have a warning label. Raising awareness is good but inciting hyper-vigilance is too much. Time will heal .

No worries, I was laughing at myself for, one, not reading about snakes in the daytime, and two, for dreaming about snakes.

[Polydor]

2Jakes I was watching some of the Swamp War videos last night. Just curious what happened with the snake that you were freeing and pulling out from the chain link fence and then almost got into the pond? Did you end up rounding him up safely ?

P.

[Shine]

Shine, fear not. You probably have a better chance at winning the lottery than being eaten by a gator .

I don't know. Some yahoo brought up a gator and put it his pond about 5 miles up the road.

Yup. He got busted because he had to brag about it. What an idiot!

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

Cold tolerant gators....

It's in the 80s here! The gators are basking in the sun. We warmbloods are sweating in the pasture. Next thing, all the snakes will come out early.

Already, in Bluffton, SC, a mama gator has been found this week with 18 little hatchlings. Something that is NOT supposed to happen in January there! We might go back north just to get temperatures in the 60s. We came south for the winter season, but we hadn't expected summer in January.

Or maybe it was the daddy gator back to eat the mama gator's hatchlings?
So if one of the Florida gators or pythons eats one of the buzzed hunters full of bier, will the python or gator get drunk? A buzzed snake or gator could be a mean drunk.

We agree with Shine. It only takes one gator to eat you. It's like they say about great white sharks, that you have a better chance of being hit by lightning. We don't want to experience any of those bad things. One of us has met up with a lot of gators, but hasn't been chased by one. Supposedly, once gators "stand up" on those legs, they can outrun a horse. Hey, 2jakes, how fast can a python "run?"

[invinoveritas]

Any updates on the hunt?

[2Jakes]

2Jakes I was watching some of the Swamp War videos last night. Just curious what happened with the snake that you were freeing and pulling out from the chain link fence and then almost got into the pond? Did you end up rounding him up safely ?

P.

Yup. I felt bad because he had some damage from getting stuck, but he ended up doing okay. He just had to shed a couple of times.

[2Jakes]

Any updates on the hunt?

I'm away from South Florida for a week (up at my property in Central Fl, riding the Ocala National Forest ) so I haven't heard anything. If I do get any news I'll be sure and pass it along!

[RainyDayRide]

21 pythons caught thru 1/17.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/a...st-4205396.php

[ybiaw]

I'm away from South Florida for a week (up at my property in Central Fl, riding the Ocala National Forest ) so I haven't heard anything. If I do get any news I'll be sure and pass it along!

They had something on the news about it last night, but I wasn't really paying attention. I'll have to look it up - I think it was on WPBF.

[scheherazadetbmare]

Today on TV was some politician named Nelson who was stomping through the Everglades on the hunt for a big snake. He'd probably faint if he found one without all the aides waking with him!

[WildandWickedWarmbloods]

Happy Chinese New Year today! Of course, yikes, it is the Year of the Snake!

And only 2 hunters have been lost in the Glades during the python season hunt so far!

[2Jakes]

The big python hunt of 2013 has ended. I think the 1500 hunters caught 50-something snakes. That's not very many but it is 50+ less pythons in the wild, so that much is a good thing!

My dire predictions for hunter mayhem did not really come to pass, again, a good thing. And there is more awareness of the problem so all in all I guess the challenge was a success!

And now back to life as normal...

[Sannois]

The big python hunt of 2013 has ended. I think the 1500 hunters caught 50-something snakes. That's not very many but it is 50+ less pythons in the wild, so that much is a good thing!

My dire predictions for hunter mayhem did not really come to pass, again, a good thing. And there is more awareness of the problem so all in all I guess the challenge was a success!

And now back to life as normal...

That is nothing compared to what they say is out there.
PLEASE tell me these snakes caught were killed and used for leather purses or hand bags or shoes?

[cloudyandcallie]

So it turns out that the man who claimed he was buying a black mamba at a rest stop off I-95 last year, when he claimed he was bitten by the mamba, was lying. He was bitten by his own cobra, and faked the black mamba bite for attention or whatever. Of course he claimed the mamba was on the run in SE GA, so the feds spent many man hours searching for the non-existent snake. So the feds have the guy on trial now. Hopefully he'll be fined all the money that was spent searching for his non-existent black mamba.

And those guys who killed the snakes in the Glades will, if they were allowed to keep the snakes, probably mount the heads on their bedroom walls as do most "hunters." And they'll exaggerate about the size and length. Why do men always lie about the size/length of everything?

[ParadoxFarm]

Watching that video reminded me why I'm glad I moved out of South Florida. I hated it. I'm not a fan of alligators, either! Ick. I'll put of with the mild TN winter and be alligator and python/constrictor free! Though, yes, we do have some poisonous snakes, I have never seen one here. But I saw plenty of alligators in FL when I lived there. I have a picture somewhere of walking around Wellington at the horse show and seeing an alligator sunning itself on the path right as a horse and rider were walking by. He just slunk back into the water as the horse and rider passed. No thanks! Too close for comfort.

[cloudyandcallie]

So the guy from Florida who faked the black mamba bite here in GA a little over a year ago was tried and convicted of lying to the feds last week in Brunswick. Turns out he was security guard at Jax hospital and had been bitten before by his own cobra several times. So since he had had his prior bites treated at the hospital where he worked, he was trying to avoid treatment there for the last bite. So he came to GA, faked the black mamba bite, and claimed the snake escaped just off 95. Now he'll go to a federal prison camp, maybe the oneover in Estill SC where he can meet the native rattlers.

And in Tennessee, a KY man got stopped for traffic violation and police found rattlers and copperheads that said man had bought in Alabama. He was taking the snakes back to Ky for religious ceremonies. Illegal to transport them through Tennessee w/o a permit, so he's now going to court for his snakes. Doesn't KY have enough rattlers and copperheads without having to import them? We'd be glad here in GA to send our poisonous snakes to KY.

[Risk-Averse Rider]

I saw a big ol' fat Western Diamondback this morning, up close and personal. Fortunately for the dryness of my underwear, the snake was safely locked in a sturdy cage

I was with a friend at a dog-training facility, interpreting while she dropped off her dog for a couple weeks of training, which will include snake-proofing. We got to watch a couple dogs go through the training. Pretty cool.

Do people ever do snake-aversion training for horses, or does that come pre-installed?

[2Jakes]

I've never heard of anyone doing snake aversion training with horses but I imagine its been done somewhere, sometime.

Glad that your WDB sighting was through a cage!

[cloudyandcallie]

Those of you traveling back and forth to Florida this weekend can stop off at the I-95/US80 exit in Pooler GA to take in the snake show and convention there. (I don't recommend that humans or snakes stay at that hotel though. We had a seminar there once and the AC didn't work and the hotel did not look nice at all.)