What Do You Do? Invasive Species

[santaman2000]

You're walking down the street and see this in the grass next to you. What do YOU do next?

 

[Clouston98]

Squeal like a girl and run?

 

[mountainm]

That's brilliant!

 

[JonathanD]

Catch it, record the area, temperature and then take DNA samples and write up a very lengthy report.

 

[santaman2000]

That's brilliant!

It is kinda humorous. But it's not meant as a joke. While I can't vouch for the authenticity of the photo, this sort of sight is getting more frequent in Florida as Burmese Pythons keep spreading. Even if the photo is authentic, I'm not good enough to identify that particular snake either TBH, but nonetheless, this does happen here.

 

[mountainm]

It is kinda humorous. But it's not meant as a joke. While I can't vouch for the authenticity of the photo, this sort of sight is getting more frequent in Florida as Burmese Pythons keep spreading. Even if the photo is authentic, I'm not good enough to identify that particular snake either TBH, but nonetheless, this does happen here.

I mean it's actually brilliant, impressive, etc. would love to see something like that "in the wild"

 

[santaman2000]

Catch it, record the area, temperature and then take DNA samples and write up a very lengthy report.

Sounds reasonable if that's your job. LOL. Record the atmospheric temperature or the snakes body temperature?

 

[JonathanD]

If that's real, it's a King cobra. And they are so rare and valuable, I don't think you'll find them living free in the Everglades. But if you do, you've found the fixer for the python problem.

 

[santaman2000]

I mean it's actually brilliant, impressive, etc. would love to see something like that "in the wild"

Fair enough. In it's own native wild anyway.

 

[santaman2000]

If that's real, it's a King cobra. And they are so rare and valuable, I don't think you'll find them living free in the Everglades. But if you do, you've found the fixer for the python problem.

Thanks for the ID JD. Not sure I'd want to trade the Pythons for Cobras though.

 

[JonathanD]

Sounds reasonable if that's your job. LOL. Record the atmospheric temperature or the snakes body temperature?

Both. .

 

[mountainm]

Fair enough. In it's own native wild anyway.

What's native and what isn't? Over time everything moves around we just have a very short sighted view. Rabbits for instance were once native in the uk, killed off in a
n ice age and brought back by the Romans... Are they native now? And camels, they come from North America and are now extinct there, you can only find wild dromedaries in Australia? So where do they belong? Not Egypt that's for sure.

Seems we're becoming increasingly obsessed by where things and people belong in this day and age.

*kicks soapbox away*

 

[JonathanD]

Thanks for the ID JD. Not sure I'd want to trade the Pythons for Cobras though.

Oh no, King cobras are brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Very intelligent snake. But they won't breed like pythons and the Florida eco-system won't support them. Damned shame, they are on the level of the Great White as being the most fascinating predator on the planet.

 

[santaman2000]

TBH, even if it's real, I don't know where it is. The background is very like the south though.

 

[Mesquite]

Oh no, King cobras are brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

Going on your comments I take it one of their prey is pythons?

 

[JonathanD]

Going on your comments I take it one of their prey is pythons?

Juveniles. Pythons grow very very quickly, and in no time are too big even for the largest of King's. King cobras feed almost exclusively on other snakes, even their own.

 

[santaman2000]

What's native and what isn't? Over time everything moves around we just have a very short sighted view. Rabbits for instance were once native in the uk, killed off in a
n ice age and brought back by the Romans... Are they native now? And camels, they come from North America and are now extinct there, you can only find wild dromedaries in Australia? So where do they belong? Not Egypt that's for sure.

Seems we're becoming increasingly obsessed by where things and people belong in this day and age.

*kicks soapbox away*

That's because natural migration and evolution is (usually) slower whereas our transplanting of species has more immediate and disasterous results on native ecosystems.

 

[mountainm]

That's because natural migration and evolution is (usually) slower whereas our transplanting of species has more immediate and disasterous results on native ecosystems.

We're not outside nature. We like to think we are, but we're part of it.

 

[Tengu]

Catch it

I imagine a snake that size would be desirable as skin, meat or a pet.

 

[JonathanD]

This is not a big one...