Periodically we all see things in the news about invasive pythons in the Everglades. The Washington Post had a piece about the problem today and I was asked about the issue by several students after delivering a guest lecture on invasive species to a class at the University of Virginia this morning.I did not include pythons or anacondas in 'Eating Aliens', though I had originally intended to devote a chapter to them. The reason for this is that the rules on both state and federal land for hunting them are simply too restrictive to have much of a chance of actually getting one. If I spent a full week sloshing around in the Everglades trying to bag a python then the odds are overwhelmingly against my succeeding in having a dead python to eat and write about. I just can't afford that and neither could very many of my readers. I ended up focusing on hunting other invasive species during my several trips to Florida.
According to Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, hunters who participate in the python permit program aren't allowed to actually kill the pythons:
Firearms and traps may not be used. The snakes can be captured by hand, with nets or snares. Pythons may be euthanized onsite by approved means, deposited at a location for euthanizing by a veterinarian, or transported to an approved facility to be used in research.
The rules of engagement on federal land are even more restrictive. During the entire inaugural six week season for pythons in the Everglades in 2010, not a single python was taken. Not one.
I understand that they want whole, undamaged pythons to take samples from and to study. It is good to do the science. But the science must not be allowed to stand in the way of killing the invasive species.
I have found again and again on the ground around the US that scientific research often becomes a direct impediment to removing invasive species. The people making the rules for the hunting tend to have some vested interest in having the science continue even at the cost of solving the problem*.
In the Back Bay Federal Wildlife Refuge, Virginia, researchers are allowing feral pigs to rapidly multiply even though there are scads of hunters ready to kill them year-round. They have token managed hunts (I have participated in several, including this first one for me in 2009), but little scouting is allowed, weapons are limited to the most ineffective, and all of the hunters are dumped out on the refuge in a confused horde on a very few days. The explanation for this from a USDA biologist on the site was that they didn't want hunters getting in the way of the people who are researching the problem; which to my mind is sort of like denying antibiotics to a syphilis patient because the doctor doesn't want to lose the business.
The only practical way to deliberately remove an invasive animal is to hunt and kill the animal relentlessly. That is the only thing that works. More studies will not remove the pythons. Public outreach will not remove pythons. Media coverage will not remove pythons. The only thing that will work is to kill them relentlessly wherever and whenever they can be found in Florida. So long as the season is limited, so long as the use of firearms is prohibited, and so long as huge chunks of wild land is off-limits to hunters of invasives, this problem is not going to go away.
You want my prediction? This problem is not going to be solved. Because what we really have, as is usually the case with invasive species, is just not a problem with giant snakes that eat everything in sight. It is a problem with human beings and with bureaucracy. And hardly anyone in a position of power cares enough to actually change anything. Some of the people we have trusted to handle the problem are standing directly in the way. If you remove the problem then there isn't anything to study any more and the funding would disappear.
The problem is a giant snake all right. A metaphorical snake. An enormous Ouroboros devouring its own tail. A problem that must exist for the sake of pretending to solve it. The pigs that hunters are not allowed to kill because the hunting could present a danger to the researchers who are studying the grave danger of the pigs in order to present findings that will justify more grants to study the problem and thus produce reports that justify more grants to study the problem... ad infinitum.
*This is by no means always the case. I have met some really devoted and talented scientists who are doing very practical field work towards eradicating invasive species. In particular I would point out the work of Duane Chapman of the USGS to rid American rivers of silver carp.
[The above photo is not my own and I presume it to be the copyright of the Sapporo Maruyama Zoo in Japan, where this snake (which is not even a python) is kept. If the copyright holder would like me to remove the image then please just let me know. I cannot make heads or tails of the site, which is in Japanese, and I can't figure out who to ask for permission to use the image.]
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