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Contract hunters can now use shotguns to kill pythons in Everglades National Park and hunting has been expanded to Big Cypress National Preserve. RELATED: The new plan for destroying invasive pythonsĬoncessions are already underway. Ron DeSantis, who said in August he wanted a stronger assault against the Burmese python, including better coordination between state and federal agencies.Ī disconnect between python hunting programs – there are at least three between the district, FWC and volunteers at Everglades National Park – and concerns about trespassing on restricted lands have posed challenges in the past.
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The district supercharged its python program at the urging of Gov. Well, why are we even bothering then?” said Eric Sutton, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “The one thing I hear that is concerning to me is that we will never be able to get rid of all the pythons. Fish and Wildlife Service noted in a report two years later that the snakes showed “signs of resilience and adaptability that could lead to breeding populations beyond the boundaries and warm climate of South Florida.”
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The last winter cold enough to stun the pythons was in 2010, but the U.S. Instead of the traditional python hunter salary of $8.46 per hour, hunters in the refuge, as well as a handful of other northern fringe natural areas, will earn $15 per hour as part of a 230 percent increase in the district’s python management budget.ĭistrict board members this month unanimously approved upping the annual $225,000 cost of the 2 1/2-year-old program by $750,000 – an increase that includes doubling the number of sanctioned python hunters to 50, using detection dogs and GPS-tracked snakes, soliciting ideas for better hunting techniques and continuing monitoring programs with the University of Florida. The treasured Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge west of Boynton Beach – a peach pit-shaped sanctuary of tree islands connected by marshy freshwater streams – is one of the new premium-pay hunting spots designated by the South Florida Water Management District. Florida is nearly doubling the pay for hunters willing to stalk pythons in the last remnant of the northern Everglades as new research finds the invasive snake may be established in areas previously thought unspoiled by the apex predator.