Anybody who didn't see this coming is living in a dream world. With all the wild python stories in FL lately we all knew talk of new regs was just around the corner.
This particular article is just peppered with ignorance and fantasy though.
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DELRAY BEACH — As the sun set at Tropic Bay, most residents had already retired to their condominiums for the evening, just as they do every night.
That's probably why, until last week, no one had spotted the 6-foot-long albino Burmese python that had been living under the pool deck for at least a year.
Pythons hunt at night, after most senior condo residents have gone to bed.
A visitor saw the bright yellow snake about noon on a Friday in the middle of the courtyard, where it evidently had decided to sun itself.
"It scared him to death," community association manager Joann Bordelon said. She called a wildlife trapper and posted notices, "not to alarm anyone, but just to warn them to be cautious."
How does a giant constrictor native to Southeast Asia wind up living under a pool deck by the Intracoastal Waterway in Delray Beach? Fairly easily, because of lax laws that are difficult to enforce.
Local python stories have become old hat in the past few weeks. A photo of a python that had swallowed an alligator in the Everglades made international news. In the Miami suburbs, pythons swallowed a turkey and a Siamese cat.
"This is nothing new," said Lt. Charlie Dennis, a captive wildlife investigator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "It's just getting more attention."
Faced with the prospect of spending $100 a month to feed live rabbits to a growing 10-foot-long snake, overwhelmed python owners have been releasing them into the Everglades and local canals, where they've been breeding for at least 10 years, wildlife officials suspect. Lately, rain has encouraged the snakes to wander. As real-estate development creeps to the edge of the Everglades, animals and people see more of each other.
That's probably how the python came to Tropic Bay, the Trapper John team surmised as they sat by the pool in the dark, waiting for the snake to show itself. A foul odor pervaded the aseptic condo air — rabbit urine and dung trapper Bud Howell had spread around two saucer-sized holes in the lawn that led to the python's den. He wanted to lure the serpent out, but it would not happen tonight.
Stray cats, rats and curly-tail lizards were conspicuously absent from the courtyard.
"He's been eating well," Howell said.
Anyone struck with a jungle fashion fantasy can walk into a pet store, plunk down $30 and walk out with a python draped around his neck. The Internet even has eliminated the need to leave the house to go snake shopping.
It's perfectly legal to import most species of pythons. One needs only an export permit from the snake's home country, a $100 yearly import/export license fee and about $55 for an inspection, said Mike Elkins, assistant special agent in charge of the southeast region for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The same economic globalization that sent U.S. factory production to China has made it cheaper to import wild pythons than it is to breed them in captivity.
"You pay a local villager 50 cents to get it and you sell it for $150," Elkins said.
As she waited for a call back on a python sighting at a Deerfield Beach condo, Boca Raton wildlife trapper Allyn Szejko said she thinks import laws ought to be stricter for pythons and iguanas, the two reptile scourges that make up the bulk of her calls. She regularly pulls snakes out of the El Rio canal, where it seems everyone in Boca Raton dumps unwanted pets, she said. She'd start a lobbying campaign, but she's too busy.
"I don't have time," she said. "Someone's gotta go out and get the snakes."
Although the state has strict rules governing trade and ownership of venomous snakes, it requires no permits for python owners, only for those who sell them. That could change. Officials are working on a management plan for big snakes as part of a statewide invasive-species plan, said Scott Hardin, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's exotic species coordinator. The plan will focus on educating the public and potential snake owners. The state also could put up a few more hurdles to ownership. An outright ban on the snakes probably would backfire, driving the trade underground, Hardin said.
"Sometimes regulation is all a well-intentioned person needs to know," Hardin said.
He's also organizing a pilot pet-amnesty program, paid for with a $20,000 grant from the Florida Wildlife Foundation. One weekend in May, Hardin plans to lead a group of officials to a pet store parking lot in Orlando, where they'll take exotic fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds from their overwhelmed owners. The pets would go to a store, wildlife exhibitor or research facility. If the pet has a disease, it could be quarantined or euthanized.
Hardin decided not to test the program in South Florida, the epicenter of exotic species thriving in the wild, because he feared the sheer numbers of disgruntled pet owners could swamp the fledgling program before it got off the ground.
"It could be a pretty significant effort," Hardin said. "Once we get the kinks worked out, we could operate it statewide."
Hawaii has a similar amnesty program. Instead of killing them, the state ships the reptiles to clearinghouses on the mainland — including one in Florida. Hawaii also bans owning or importing serpents of any kind. Violators face fines of from $5,000 to $20,000 or a year in jail for a first-degree misdemeanor. Breeding snakes is a felony, resulting in up to $200,000 in fines or three years in jail.
"We're serious about it," said Domingo Cravalho, an animal specialist with the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. "From time to time we do public outreach and put the fear of God in people, and we'll have multitudes of turn-ins."
Although Florida residents may keep pythons in captivity, state law prohibits releasing any exotic species into the wild. The first-degree misdemeanor is punishable by a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
Enforcing the law, which requires catching violators in the act, has proven difficult, Dennis said. And the python problem has grown "exponentially" since snake dealers set up shop on the Internet.
"The biggest thing is Mom and Dad should not... buy... the python," he said, slowing to drive the point home. "Say no to snakes. Buy a yellow rat snake if you have to. It's native and you can turn it loose."
It's probably too late to eradicate pythons from the wild in South Florida, officials have conceded. They're breeding. They're heading east and making their homes under condo pools. They're here to stay.
"I don't think we'll eliminate them," Hardin said. "We're just working on a containment strategy."
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