Snake Trackers From Irula Tribe Newest Weapon Against Python In Florida
South Florida is considered as a perfect place to stay for North Easterners who wants to avoid the snow in the winter. However, visitors who are planning to go to the Biscayne National Park must better think twice before going to place.
According to DailyMail, a kayaker who was taking in the coastal scenery in the park last month spotted a nine-foot-long Burmese python on a research platform a half-mile off the beach. It is the first time that a python has been spotted in the park. And the following the day it was spotted, the said python was captured by a local snake wrangler.
Species like that can swim, and they can invade the small islands off the coast of South Florida where birds and mating turtles are nesting. Before the snake could infest the island, it has to be stopped.
Fortunately, there is a solution to that. Two tribesmen from the Southern India are working with the University of Florida have caught 14 pythons which include a 16-foot female holed up in the ruins of the old Nike missile base on Key Largo.
The idea of having Irula Snake trackers in targeting python has been percolating for years among Mazzotti. In 1978, the award-winning herpetologist Romulus Whitaker founded the snake-hunting co-op for the tribe following the unregulated snake trading was banned.
Currently, the tribe hunts Cobras to collect antivenin to be used as a remedy to the nation's snake-bite problem. According to Miami Herald, the Irula tracking techniques seems new to the South Florida experts.
The Irulas move slowly and focus on roads and levees where the snakes could be hiding. They hunt on the lucrative hunting grounds where there are high grasses that line the levees. The hunting techniques of the Irulas seem to be effective because they have already captured 13 snakes.
"Since the Irula have been so successful in their homeland at removing pythons, we are hoping they can teach people in Florida some of these skills," Kristen Sommers, chief of FWC's Wildlife Impact Management Section, said.