The death of a Florida toddler in the coils of a 2.5m Burmese python has sparked an official crackdown to eradicate a menacing population of slithering predators in the sun-drenched holiday state.
A small band of newly licensed trappers hit the trail this week, hunting pythons living in the swampy wetlands of southern Florida. Experts believe that as many as 100,000 of the reptiles are loose in the region — an unfortunate outcome of a fad for keeping exotic pets.
Earlier this month, a two-year-old girl, Shaiunna Hare, was strangled to death in her bedroom near Orlando by a python belonging to her mother’s boyfriend. The snake had escaped its glass cage during the night and wrapped itself around the child’s crib.
The tragedy galvanized Florida’s politicians into action over mounting alarm about the danger posed by pythons, which grow as long as 8m, weigh up to 89kg and can eat animals as big as deer.
“It’s just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to a visitor in the Florida Everglades,” said Bill Nelson, a Democratic senator from the state.
Native to Africa and southeast Asia, pythons are interlopers to Florida and face no predator to keep them in check. Florida locals blame a booming wild population on irresponsible pet owners who release pythons into the wild when they become unmanageably large.
Others trace the problem back to Hurricane Andrew, which destroyed pet shops, hatcheries and zoos as it swept across the Floridian peninsula in 1992. Wildlife experts fear that if left unchecked, the snakes will decimate the population of smaller mammals, birds and reptiles.
Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, last week licensed an initial group of fewer than 10 python hunters to begin trapping the snakes. Pursued by a pack of photographers, the hunters snared a 3m long python during their first foray on Friday.
“[Pythons] don’t make a lot of noise, when they’re agitated, they may hiss,” said Shawn Heflick, a licensed hunter. “They can hold on pretty tight but they’re well camouflaged and when they sit in vegetation, they’re pretty hard to see.”
Accustomed to alligators, Florida locals are not easily fazed by wildlife. The subtropical state numbers black widow spiders and fire ants among its more exotic residents. But pythons are proving particularly chilling. The snakes reproduce rapidly, laying as many as 100 eggs at a time.
“We do have a serious python problem, and this program is a good first step in helping to stop the spread of this exotic species,” said Rodney Barreto, the chair of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
Curbs have been imposed on keeping pythons as pets — including a compulsory annual US$100 permit and embedded microchips to track escaped pets. But animal rights groups have called for more radical steps.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was