Last Chance to stop the Python and Boa Ban!

[WingedWolfPsion]

Any mention in there about the utter failure, over a period of 2 months, of any person given a hunting permit to find a single Burmese this spring?

[ConcinusMan]

Sort of. It was implied. Florida did experience a hard freeze last winter, '09 or was it the winter of '08, I don't remember. the freeze extended clear to southern florida. Miami had lows below 32 for long enough to kill tropical species. Most of the pythons did not survive. No pythons, or no abundance of them = no permits or hunts needed.

[Stefan-A]

Just hope that those that did survive didn't do so because they were more cold-tolerant.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't think so. More likely that they were the right size, and in the right place at the right time, to find shelter from the cold. I think the big population boom that has been in the news was due to several years of warm, favorable weather and abundance of prey. That lead to bigger snakes and higher reproductive success.

[WingedWolfPsion]

It's such an embarrassment for the politicians, and Rodda and Reed, who were claiming these animals would be populating Kansas.

[ConcinusMan]

pppttt!! yeah right! I never heard that. That's funny.

[WingedWolfPsion]

Yes, this is the map they used. This is their 'projection' of where Burmese pythons will be able to colonize in the US.
http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/...bution-map.jpg
This is part of the infamous USGS report that is being used as support for these legislative efforts.

[Stefan-A]

Looks like sloppy GIS work. How did they arrive at that conclusion?

[ConcinusMan]

I guess they forgot the small detail that pythons do NOT have an instinct or motivation to brumate and if they get caught in a freeze, THEY'RE DEAD!

[WingedWolfPsion]

They used climate, and climate ALONE. And then they used PROJECTED CLIMATE CHANGES based on current global warming. This is the absurd result.