Florida Python Round Up

A dive into the insanity of Florida and how they're handling their invasive python problem.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, the wild life, A wild life stuck in my
head all the time. All Right, you guys know how
much I love Florida, And that's mainly because boyfriends from there.
We used to go visit his mom all the time.

(00:22):
Absolutely love Florida. But saying that, I've never seen a python.
I've been there multiple times, never seen a python. However,
they do have a problem with Burmese pythons. They are
an invasive species and they're trying anything they can to
get rid of these things. Like back in the day,
they even had these robot rabbits that they would use
to just see a python report back so they.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Could go out and get a robot rabbit. Yep, does
that have a video camera in it? It's out getting
surveillance on pythons.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yes, and so when it would see one, it would
report it back and they would go out and kill it.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Why does it need to be a rabbit? Isn't that
kind of the plot like cad shack too or something?
Wasn't there like a gopher with a camera in it
or something like? Why why can't it just be a
camera out there? Why does it have to have to
dress it up as rabbit?

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well, because Apparently pythons like rabbits, right, and so that
would draw them out of the pie glades.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Catch a rabbit, like I watched my dogs chase rabbits
and they have no shot. My dogs all run four
three forties. They're super fast. I think it's like the
python's trying to blend in with the tall correct grass
and dumb rabbit bounces right by it, right, jumps in
its mouth.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I can't hear it slithering up.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh all right.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Anyway, so this this year they started an incentive program, okay,
and they said, whoever catches the most pythons in a
month kills them, we will give you a monetary reward.
And so last month, mister Aaron Mann he was like, hey,
I got this. He killed eighty seven pythons.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Wow, eighty seven in one month.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I don't know how this sort of thing works, but
it feels like I don't know. Isn't there agencies that
have a I don't understand all this, Like you're you
can just go out and kill snake, you know what
I'm saying? Like sometimes with conversations like hey, you're not
allowed to kill a bird? Well, I think when they're invasive,
it's all bets are off, like no one's protecting them
or looking out for him because they're doing more damage

(02:17):
like wild bores or like that.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
So like if you just see a wild boar out
in the street, you can start shooting bad ass.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like these things are such a problem that they even
have like annual contests to like send people out to yeah,
kill as many as you can find. So clearly it's
a problem. Especially one guy's killing eighty seven in a month, and.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
It's impossible to like have a robot rabbit without a
python eating it.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
So you like you have to stop them.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
You have to, okay, you have to protect the robot
rabbit population exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So Aaron Mann, he's all proud of himself. He's like,
there's no way anyone killed more than eighty seven. There's
no way.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
So where's my reward? All right? Yep?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Florida's like, all right, good job man, thank you so
much for your service. Here's one thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Ah. God, I think how hard it is to find,
catch and kill eighty seven giant man eating pythons because
once their razor sharp teeth get the taste of human flesh,
they yearn for nothing else?

Speaker 3 (03:11):
So did I do the math right on? That?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Is that one hundred or one hundred and fourteen dollars
a python?

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (03:20):
No, it's eleven dollars and fifty cents right.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I was like, I think it's cheaper than that. Which,
it's just it's insane.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, he made eleven dollars and fifty cents per python killed.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's like, this guy definitely deserves way more than just
one thousand dollars. Because I was reading into this story
and that that annual challenge I mentioned last year the
winner only killed twenty pythons and they got ten thousand dollars. Wait, what,
I don't understand how this is working.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
Did we have quotes from this guy complaining not yet?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
But he's I mean, I'm sure he's going to unless
he's just this is just fun for him and he
So I don't know if the things have changed since
this this program has just started this year. So maybe
it's like every month just one thousand bucks too wherever
it kills the most. Oh so, okay, I see.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
So they took their whole ten thousand dollars annual contest
and tried to spread it out over the year, and
then supplemented it with two grands.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Right, but how fist would you be like this guy
like killed twenty.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well the other thing too.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
My first thought is, so you did that over the
course of a month. Where do you store these things
or do you just every day you stop off and go, well,
here's two more and throw them in their pile.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
I think you have to.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Just corral them, feed them, keep them healthy, and then
if you don't get a big enough bounty, just release
them into that person's yard who's in charge of the bounty. Okay, no,
I'm sorry, we couldn't reach an agreement. We're gonna let
these eighty seven pythons out in your backyard. That is
a very lex luthor approach to collecting pythons. You hold
him hostage. I need a proper ransom, yeah, or you

(04:55):
know what he's also he's not a very good python
guy because knowing that the record was, why not just
hang on to thirty and then collect each prid? Right
like rationing out your python killing?

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, you don't know how many the other people are killing.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's true. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
It's a lot like Final Jeopardy. You don't know what
the other person's number is. You have no idea, so sorry,
mister man. You definitely deserve more than a thousand bucks.
But congrats on eighty seven pythons.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Very good reporting, Christina.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Maybe tomorrow in the Wildlife News we'll get to the
story of the Frankenstein rabbits.

Speaker 3 (05:30):
It seems to be sweeping the nation as well.