Other news of the day

[gae]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's newest problem is a creepy one, and it is roughly the circumference of a telephone pole. It has no toes. It snacks on rabbits.

And it's growing in number and in feet: the Burmese python.

Florida Everglades National Park biologist Skip Snow said last year they caught 95 pythons.

That's not counting the 13-footer that exploded after trying to eat an alligator, or two others that got loose and ate a Siamese cat and a turkey.

To keep the problem from sliding further out of control, state Rep. Ralph Poppell wants to add Burmese pythons to Florida's list of regulated reptiles. His bill could force python buyers to complete state training, buy a license and face jail time if they let their snakes loose.

Overwhelmed with pets that eat more than they do, python owners decide to release their snakes into the wild. It's so common in the Everglades that there's even a python hot line.

And there the Asian natives breed and find a comfortable home in the Everglades' water, heat and vegetation. They have no predators.

The bill is being heard in committees on both sides.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tell me again why people <s>move</s> live there? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Lew]

Actually, according to Katherine Harris, there really weren't as many pythons as originally suspected....

[travelinman]

Fla. Island Residents Besieged by Iguanas

By BRIAN SKOLOFF
Associated Press Writer


BOCA GRANDE, Fla. (AP) -- Death and taxes may be life's only certainties, but for folks in this upscale island town, add iguanas. And another tax.

During the last three decades, the resort community on Florida's Gulf Coast has been overrun by the black, spiny-tailed, nonnative lizards that demolish gardens, nest in attics and weaken beach dunes with burrows.

Last month, Lee County commissioners agreed to create a special tax for Boca Grande to cover costs of studying the infestation on the barrier island of Gasparilla, where scientists estimate there are up to 12,000 iguanas on the loose, more than 10 for every year-round resident.

[cincygreg]

So they take the snakes from one area over to where the iguanas are.
The snakes eat the iguanas and then the place with the snke problem has no more snakes, and the place with the iguana problem has no iguanas [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
Wait, then the people who had the igunanas will have snakes and the snakes will be bigger than they were originally.
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM [img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]
Ok, we bring in giant alligators to eat the snakes who ate the iguans and then just to be fair we spread those alligators amongst the three areas. [img]graemlins/sure.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img]