...Hunting Pythons in the Florida Everglades:Predators in Paradise

In photo: Author, Jennifer Lopez

(This paper has been written as a Special Project for the 6th Term Ethics and Jurisprudence Course. The views and opinions of the author do not necessarily represent those of the School of Veterinary Medicine or of St. Georges University.)

The Everglades National Park, located in southern Florida, is the largest area of subtropical wetlands in the entire country and accounts for 25 percent of the marshlands in the state.  The Everglades are home to both rare and endangered species, and rumored to be home to massive exotic snakes, prowling the saw grass marshes.  This snake rumor is now a reality and a tremendous risk to the native mammals, ecosystem and people that frequent the Everglades grounds. 

The first sightings of the Burmese pythons began in the mid-1970's.  It has been postulated that these snakes were dumped in the Everglades soon after owners realized the snake’s size was unmanageable, growing up to 12 feet in the first two years of their lives.  Unknown to many, these snakes began breeding and increasing the python population that would consume native birds, fishes and mammals of the Everglades. 

Veteran wildlife biologist for the U.S. National Park Service, Skip Snow, states: “There’s every evidence that the problem is increasing in scope and scale” (Brown).  So the question that is on the minds of many Floridians is: what is the next course of action to stop the spread of this exotic breeding population of Burmese pythons?  Many say that an organized controlled hunt of the snakes on the federal lands of the Everglades is imperative.  Florida Senator Bill Nelson, leading the cause to eradicate these exotic snakes, states, “There is only one way to do this:  kill the snakes” (Morgan).

The controversy in Florida of whether to allow a state mandated hunt for the capture and killing of Burmese pythons found in the Everglades has been fast-tracked into legislature by pleads from Governor Charlie Crist, Senator Nelson and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after the death of Shaunnia Hare.  Shaunnia was a 2-year-old Central Florida girl that was strangled by an unlicensed pet python snake that had gotten out of its cage during the middle of the night in her home. After this horrific tragedy, the Python Program was born.

The Python Program allows volunteer hunters to cut off the head of any Burmese python they find on federal lands.  The snake hunters must then split the bellies open to examine the stomach contents, as wildlife biologists are currently studying which native species are vulnerable to python attacks.  Hunters are then allowed to keep the snake corpses, meat and skins.  The state will not pay trappers for each carcass, but trappers will be able to profit off the python meat and hide.  Python hide is valuable for luxury shoes, wallets and handbags.  The first phase will be conducted in the state until October 2009.  At that point, the state might decide to hire more trappers.  In addition, the U.S. Department of the Interior is considering a hunting program expansion and a national bill has been introduced to ban the import and inter-state trade of pythons. 

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