things sure changed in the glades

[Grumpy]

back in the 1960s florida was awash in bunnies, rats and opossums and raccoons,
they were damn near everyplace
,you could drive along most rural roads in the early evening or at dusk and see hundreds
then, some idiot allowed a few of the local zoo inhabitants to escape after a hurricane ,
and a few other morons turned pets loose.. in the glades...I have not seen a rabbit in the wild in years.
one of my old neighbors called to tell me he went deer hunting and noticed he had not seen a rabbit in the glades in several weeks,
they used to be so common you could almost step on them near dusk along most dirt roads in the glades.

Burmese Pythons in Florida | FWC

its highly advised that you carry a reliable firearm in the glades these days,
these snakes can and do easily exceed 10 plus feet and 50 lbs
big enough to kill kids and dogs easily, while rarely aggressive they have the strength/ teeth, etc. to be lethal

 

[Grumpy]

the links suggest the snakes are rather limited to the southern 1/4 of the state,
that's not the case, everyplace south of orlando has more than a enough,
Im sure a few missing cats and dogs are also on the list of snack food for these snakes
all my old fla hunting buddies report them even up to ocala, and as nuts as it seems,
they say the hog , coyote and deer population seems to be negatively affected (reduced)
while a few thousand less hogs may be beneficial thats not progress on deer.

https://flpythonchallenge.org/media/1058/burmese-python-brochure.pdf

Geographic spread of Burmese python records in southern Florida between 1979 and 2021 | U.S. Geological Survey

www.usgs.gov

 

[Grumpy]