Giant PYTHON Snake Hunters Declare Open Season on Burmese Pythons.wmv

Python Hunting voluntarily in Florida

Giant Burmese pythons have been unleashed by private individuals in the Everglades in the USA. Now they have become so numerous that the park Saturday arranges hunting competition to bring down the population.

Hundreds of amateurs are now come to the Everglades, armed with clubs, machetes and guns.

The Burmese python can grow longer than a car and heavier than an adult man.

The month-long contest Python 2013 Challenge is open to all.

- This is as exciting as it can be. It is "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," says contestant Ron Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio.

Participants pay $ 25 to participate, and take a course online, which mainly consists of looking at pictures of pythons and protected native snakes to learn to tell the difference, writes Reuters.

The state animal protection offers a prize of $ 1,500 (just over 8,000 billion) for the one who catches the most pythons and $ 1000 for the longest python.

Threatening ecosystem

A Burmese python that was found in Florida last year set the record as the largest ever caught in the state. It was 5.4 meters. Snake weighed nearly 75 pounds.

A record copy of a Reptile Park in Gurnee, Illinois, USA was measured at 8.2 meters and 183 kilograms in 2005, according to Wikipedia .

Carli Segelson, spokeswoman for the event, said the number of participants reached about 500 this week, and that number increases as participants flock to a total of 32 states.

A research report published in 2012 shows that the spread of pythons coincided with a sharp decline of mammals in the park.

The study shows that the population of raccoon and opossum has decreased by respectively 99.3 and 98.9 per cent since the Burmese python began to spring up in the area.

The rabbit appears to be completely gone. It also bodes ill for endangered species in the park.

The stated goal of the competition is to raise awareness about the threat Burmese pythons pose to the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes originated from Southeast Asia and have no known predators in Florida.

- The competition also serves as a pilot project to see whether this kind of competition can curb the growing menace of the alien species, said Frank Mazzotti zoologist from the University of Florida.

He helped to create competition.

Fearing stray bullet

Python Challenge rules state that participants must kill animals on site in a human way, and recommends to shoot snakes through the brain.

- I was hoping there would be many machetes and not so many weapons, said the retired merchant Polster.

He said he is concerned that "these idiots will shoot all over the place."

Shawn Heflick, star of the television program "Python Hunters" on National Geographic, told Reuters that despite the python enormous size mire themselves in addition to alligators, crocodiles and poisonous snakes, which will pose the biggest threat.

When participants are down there, they get lost, they will become dehydrated, they will be "sucked dry by mosquitoes," says Heflick.

Segelson says organizer at the start will provide training in the use of GPS and identifying poisonous snakes.

Simultaneously, the participants make themselves known in the Everglade, just as they should when they arrive any other foreign territory, says Segelson.

Heflick think most of the participants are drawn to Python Challenge with a romantic expectation of catching a giant predator. He expects that few will hold out for long.

- Most people will never see a python. The vast majority will end the chase pretty quickly. when they find out how much it is where mosquitoes. It's hot, and quite boring sometimes - most of the time really. I think many will go home, says Heflick.

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