A Hero or Just Plain Crazy?
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| Tommy Owen struggling with a Burmese Python |
Imagine going on a calm
boat ride through the scenic Florida Everglades and spotting numerous wonderful
creatures that inhibit Florida. Now imagine spotting a Burmese python (Python bivittatus) crossing
the murky water and then within seconds your tour guide is jumping out of the
boat into the water to wrestle the snake that was just spotted. Everglade’s tour guide
Tommy Owen did just that on Tuesday April 9th.
While taking a family on a tour on the Everglades Adventure Tours in Florida the family spotted a python midway through the tour. Only after a few seconds of spotting the snake crossing the water Tommy Owen jumped into the swamp to wrangle and kill the 10 foot snake. He reported taking this action because, "the first thing I thought was that we had to get him out of there because they eat our rabbits, our wading birds all our small mammals." Florida is currently in an epidemic trying to rid of these snakes that offset the entire ecology of the area. However, Owen only realized after he jumped in the snake was larger than he first guessed by about 5 feet. Once he finally got a firm hold of the snake after wrangling it for more than a few minutes and securing the head so it didn't bite him, his partner was able to cut the head off finally killing the snake.
Sadly this is only one Burmese python killed out of the many still inhibiting the Florida Everglades. These pythons will eat anything from small mammals to alligators, and birds. They thrive in this area because they have no natural predators once they grow to a large size, have an abundance of food sources, and the climate is suitable. Many tournaments like the Python Challenge Hunt have been hosted in the Everglades as an attempt to get rid of the invasive species.
These species became invasive when humans released their pet pythons into the wild when they became too large to handle. Also hurricanes like Hurricane Andrew destroyed a breeding facility and zoos allowing a number of pythons to escape into the Everglades and establish a population. Although it was only one python out of many, Tommy Owen showed his strong devotion of conserving the local species of the Florida Everglades by putting his own life at risk. Even though his actions proved to be crazy he should be considered a hero becuase of this risk he was willing to take to conserve the local wildlife of the Florida Everglades.
While taking a family on a tour on the Everglades Adventure Tours in Florida the family spotted a python midway through the tour. Only after a few seconds of spotting the snake crossing the water Tommy Owen jumped into the swamp to wrangle and kill the 10 foot snake. He reported taking this action because, "the first thing I thought was that we had to get him out of there because they eat our rabbits, our wading birds all our small mammals." Florida is currently in an epidemic trying to rid of these snakes that offset the entire ecology of the area. However, Owen only realized after he jumped in the snake was larger than he first guessed by about 5 feet. Once he finally got a firm hold of the snake after wrangling it for more than a few minutes and securing the head so it didn't bite him, his partner was able to cut the head off finally killing the snake.
Sadly this is only one Burmese python killed out of the many still inhibiting the Florida Everglades. These pythons will eat anything from small mammals to alligators, and birds. They thrive in this area because they have no natural predators once they grow to a large size, have an abundance of food sources, and the climate is suitable. Many tournaments like the Python Challenge Hunt have been hosted in the Everglades as an attempt to get rid of the invasive species.
These species became invasive when humans released their pet pythons into the wild when they became too large to handle. Also hurricanes like Hurricane Andrew destroyed a breeding facility and zoos allowing a number of pythons to escape into the Everglades and establish a population. Although it was only one python out of many, Tommy Owen showed his strong devotion of conserving the local species of the Florida Everglades by putting his own life at risk. Even though his actions proved to be crazy he should be considered a hero becuase of this risk he was willing to take to conserve the local wildlife of the Florida Everglades.
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| Still struggling with that python |
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/12/florida-everglades-tour-guide-wrestles-10-foot-python/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/everglades-tour-guide-wrestles-10-foot-snake-article-1.1314771
1 comment:
Impressive!
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