'Python Patrol' targets giant snakes of South Florida

The story highlights pretty much tell it. People in florida are dong stuff to make sure the snakes don't get to their part of the state.

'Python Patrol' targets giant snakes of South Florida

Story Highlights
"Python Patrol" aims to keep giant Burmese pythons from reaching Florida Keys
Pet owners have been dumping the snakes in the Everglades
Burmese pythons can grow more than 20 feet long and eat animals whole
The snakes "are eating a lot of our endangered species," conservationist says
By Kim Segal and John Zarrella
CNN


MARATHON, Florida (CNN) -- Juan Lopez reads meters with one eye and looks for snakes with the other. Lopez is a member of the "Python Patrol," a team of utility workers, wildlife officials, park rangers and police trying to keep Burmese pythons from gaining a foothold in the Florida Keys.

Officials say the pythons -- which can grow to 20 feet long and eat large animals whole -- are being ditched by pet owners in the Florida Everglades, threatening the region's endangered species and its ecosystem.

"Right now, we have our fingers crossed that they haven't come this far yet, but if they do, we are prepared," Lopez said.

Burmese Pythons are rarely seen in the middle Florida Keys, where Lopez works. The Nature Conservancy wants to keep it that way. Watch huge python wrap around a CNN reporter »

The Python Patrol program was started by Alison Higgins, the Nature Conservancy's Florida Keys conservation manager. She describes it as an "early detection, rapid response" program made up of professionals who work outside.

Eight Burmese pythons have been found in the Keys.

"If we can keep them from spreading and breeding, then we're that much more ahead of the problem," Higgins said.

Utility workers, wildlife officials and police officers recently attended a three-hour class about capturing the enormously large snakes. Lt. Jeffrey L. Fobb of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Response Unit taught the participants how to capture pythons.

"There's no immutable laws of snake catching. It's what works," Fobb said as he demonstrated catching a snake with hooks, bags, blankets and his hands.

"We're doing it in the Florida Keys because we have a lot to protect," Higgins said. "The Burmese pythons that are coming out of the Everglades are eating a lot of our endangered species and other creatures, and we want to make sure they don't breed here."

Where the snakes are breeding is just north of the Keys in Everglades National Park. An estimated 30,000 Burmese pythons live in the park.

The Everglades, known as the "River of Grass," is a vast area with a climate perfect for these pythons to hide and breed. And breed they do: The largest clutches of eggs found in the Everglades have numbered up to 83.

The snakes grow like they're on steroids. With a life span of 30 years, these pythons can weigh as much as 200 pounds. And the larger the snake, the bigger the prey. Biologists have found endangered wood rats, birds, bobcats and other animals in their stomachs.

Two 5-foot-long alligators were found in the stomachs of Burmese pythons that were caught and necropsied, officials say.

Officials also say Burmese pythons can travel 1.6 miles a day by land, and they can swim to reach areas outside the Everglades.

This nonvenomous species was brought into the United States from Southeast Asia. Everglades National Park spokeswoman Linda Friar says biologists believe that well-intended pet owners are to blame for their introduction into the Everglades.

"These pets were released by owners that do not understand the threat to the ecosystem," she said.

Higgins says 99,000 of the popular pets were brought into the United States from 1996 to 2006, the most recent data available. She says they are an easy species to breed, and you can buy a hatchling for as little as $20.

The problem with these pets, Friar says, is that they get too big for their owners to handle. Making the owner aware of what to expect when the animal becomes full-grown is a priority.

"The pet trade is pretty supportive in educating people," Friar said. She hopes a "Don't let it loose" message campaign makes an impact on pet owners.

Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a supporter of restoring the Everglades, has introduced a bill that would ban importing the python species into the United States. The senator saw the need after learning about the effect these snakes were having on the park.

"Finding out many endangered species are being found in the stomach of the python," Nelson spokeswoman Susie Quinn said, "we need to do a better job at protecting the resources."

In the meantime, Lopez and the Python Patrol will continue to protect the Florida Keys by capturing the snakes and turning them over to biologists to perform necropsies. The Nature Conservancy plans to expand the program to all the areas that surround the Everglades, making these predators their prey.

"I would like to find them and get rid of them," Lopez said.

Stone-Throwing Chimpanzee Displays Humanlike Planning Abilities

A chimp in a Swedish zoo plans his day around the chance to throw rocks at pesky human visitors. A researcher sees 'advanced consciousness and cognition traditionally not associated with animals.'
By Karen Kaplan
March 14, 2009
Santino knew the humans were coming. So each morning, he trolled for stones and fashioned concrete disks to be stashed in strategic locations until it was time to hurl them at his pesky visitors.

As a chimpanzee, Santino wasn't thought to be capable of anticipating events in a way that so closely resembled human behavior. But cognitive psychologist Mathias Osvath became convinced after watching the 30-year-old primate repeat his routine for a decade at a Swedish zoo, according to a report published this week in the journal Current Biology.-L.A.Times,March 14,2009

Colbert Nation coverage:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/222215/march-19-2009/when-animals-attack-our-morals---chimps--lizards---spiders
mm

Wild Kingdom in Michigan

A harpie eagle on Lake Michigan? Yes, "Wild Kingdom" was hosted by Lincoln Park Zoo's Marlin Perkins. Note here in this original pilot that animals and primitives are equal points of investigation in the 'wild kingdom' that exists beyond the city and its civilized ways.... ay

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Harvest 2004, Daniel Lee

http://www.daniellee.com/Harvest2.htm#

Creature Comforts (Aardman-Nick Park, 1989)

posted by kerry yang

Coyote Comuter, Portland Oregon

mm

Coyotes deserve protection

In the Colorado this past week there is a battle between the residents in Greenwood Village and local coyotes. They've hired $60 an hour vigilantes to shoot them on sight. This latest action was based on an alleged attack on a fourteen year old boy, who was not hurt.  Reports of nine attacks of humans in the past five years of coyotes in the Denver area have been reported.  Suburban enclaves like Greenwood Village have encroached on wilderness territory.  There is quite a battle brewing between conservationists and local residents. It made me sad to hear that the coyotes are being hunted because they are now living in an upscale neighborhood. It was one of my highlights this past week to observe a couple of coyotes chasing field mice in the snow close to where I was staying. They were beautiful to watch.  

MPM

my deer home (Pets or Prey?)

This short news blurb about an abandoned deer adopted by a family couldn't be more timely to or conversation about wild animals as pets and the role close caring bonds have no re-orienting and challenging people's desire to hunt. Prey or Pet? The commentary of the reporters is fascinating: "Oh, I don't think this is going to end well" (what could that mean?)

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7005514

Hamster runs Vacuum (talk about "domestication")

Oh, I kind of wish it wasn't true.

ay

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

This movie is the true story of a Bohemian St. Francis and his remarkable relationship with a flock of wild red-and-green parrots. Mark Bittner, former street musician in San Francisco, falls in with the flock as he searches for meaning in his life, unaware that the wild parrots will bring him everything he needs.
link to the trailer:
www.wildparrotsfilm.com

CM

peanut dog to the rescue

Well, we know so far that dogs can smell for bombs, for snakes & other stowed invasive species stowed in mail, and also for evil bedbugs! Now it turns out that they sniff out peanuts for the deathly allergic now as well.

Perhaps a new career for all those dogs displaced by the ponies that are taking their jobs as seeing eye dogs?

AY

the Monkey Bite Bill

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Felonious Monkeys

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Also known as the "Captive Primate Safety Act" - this piece of legislation has been around sonce 2005 but now has gotten serious (or in the case of the Daily Show, not-so-serious) attention after the chimpanzee Travis critically attacked a human.

One thing unfortunate thing about this whole congressional discussion regarding Travis and the other chimpanzees shown throughout the daily show clip: chimpanzees are NOT monkeys! Both are a kind of primate for sure, but chimpanzees - like us - are apes my friends, not monkeys.

AY

I know we talked about pets, and if it's right or wrong. What do you guys think about fish ponds? which is very separate because you really don't even interact with them. This is from this website. GMF

What is it about a fish pond? There must be something as so many of us treasure them. Are there really any benefits in having one or are they an unnecessary chore.

I personally think the benefit of owning a fish pond is well worth the time and effort involved in creating it and looking after it.

A well designed fish pond can actually add value to your home. As gardens are now seen as an additional room to your house a well laid out garden that comes complete with a fish pond is actually an asset that will encourage that potential buyer.

Wildlife in your garden will increase considerably. The frog population will thank you as there are fewer and fewer natural ponds in which they can spawn. Similarly Newts are also becoming an endangered species and having the facilities to live near water should boost the population in your area.

Birds love ponds especially if you have a shallow leader pond or waterfall. We spend hours watching the birds 'line up' to take there turn in having a bath. It is hilarious to watch.

Are you stressed at work? Coming home to a lovely pond with fish that come up to great you is a wonderful antidote. Fish can be trained to take food from your hand. You will eventually get to know their characters and they will become part of the family. They don't judge you they just love you!

Do you need a hobby, somewhere to potter? If so designing and keeping a fish pond can be a very absorbing hobby. You may start out with a basic pond but I bet in time and with more knowledge this will turn into a fascination that will grow and grow.

Start planning your fish pond now, click on the link in my resource box and you will find plenty of information and a free e-book that should get you started

Bird Skinning at the Field Museum - Step by Step

I've been working in the birds division of the field museum for several months now. My job is to skin the dead birds that are brought in by citizens or collected by volunteers around the city of Chicago. When the birds first come in they look like this:

The birds are kept in a freezer prior to their skinning, and the process can begin as soon as the neck is fully mobile.  The feathers on the breast are parted down the middle and the skin in slit from the throat to the end of the ribcage.  The spinal chord, trachea and esophagus are severed in the neck and the skin is peeled back from the torso.

The wings are clipped at the elbows and the legs below the hips, allowing the torso to be removed.  The skin of the neck is pulled up over the head and the skull is opened in order to remove the brain stem, brain, eyeballs, and tongue.  The neck skin is then eased back over the head.  With the removal of the contents of the skull, the torso, and the muscled of the appendages, the bird is ready to be stuffed.  

Unlike traditional taxidermy, when stuffing the bird skin for the museum's archive, there in no intention of imitating a lifelike pose.  The birds are stuffed with cotton, with a small stick running from the skull down the back of the skin to act as a structural spine.  The eye sockets and throat are stuffed with small pieces of cotton. The wing bones are tied with string to approximately the distance of the shoulder blades.  A wad of cotton the size of the torso is sewn into the body of the bird, and the feet are tied together at the ankles.  The bird is posed to be dried on its back with its wings folded beneath - essentially the most efficient pose for storage.  They are then dried and filed in the archive, and a corresponding flesh sample is kept in the freezer so that scientists interested in the bird in the future will have access to it.

Not all of the birds brought in to the Field Museum are archived as skins.  Many - especially those in poor condition - are preserved as skeletons, which are cleaned by flesh eating beetles in the beetle room.  For a video of the beetle room, click here.

Feral Cats, Roman Ruins, Animal City

A personal account of one reporter's interest piqued on the huge populations of cats among the Roman ruins:

"When Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, the cult of cat-headed goddess Bastet crossed the Mediterranean. Its worship became so popular, overshadowing the reverence of the emperor, that eventually an imperial decree banned all cats. But some survived. The idea that a few of the descendants still live within the imperial ruins aroused my curiosity. Thus I ended up at the largest cat colony in Rome, the Torre Argentina cat sanctuary..."

Pictured above is a cat known as "Nelson the One-Eyed King" - an alpha cat among the ruins. Feral cats are well-known in many cities worldwide and feral dogs are now being considered a problem of crisis proportion in the US. Thinking on the intimately interwined live of dogs and people in the city brings to mind the movie Amores Perros and the realization that perhaps any urban narrative that is true to the city should include the dogs, birds, cats or,rats that populate and insinuate metropolitan life(?)

AY

NV

From the Manufacturer
A really unique hands-on, hands-in live butterfly experience! Butterfly Bungalow™ makes all the caterpillar-to-butterfly magic of metamorphosis personal! After raising your Painted lady butterflies from larvae, climb into the airy habitat for some up-close observation time. The sturdy enclosure can be reused again and again. Makes a super addition to the classroom or playroom. Includes high-quality tent, mail in coupon for 6 - 10 Painted Lady butterfly larvae with special food and complete instructions. Six butterflies are guaranteed to be perfect specimens. Please allow approximately 3 weeks for your larvae to develop. During extremely hot or cold weather, delivery of live larvae may be delayed. Available only in the Continental U.S. and Alaska. Note! If ordering this item with a coupon, please be advised that there is an additional $5.00 required when redeeming your coupon for shipping and handling. Ages 4 & up

Product Description
Butterfly Bungalow makes all the caterpillar-to-butterfly magic of metamorphosis personal! After raising your Painted Lady butterflies from larvae, climb into the airy habitat for some up-close observation time. The sturdy enclosure can be reused again and again. Makes a super addition to the classroom or playroom. Includes high-quality tent, mail-in coupon for 6 to 10 Painted Lady butterfly larvae with special food and complete instructions. Six butterflies are guaranteed to be perfect specimens.

black foxes

This is a link to the first black fox of the UK. I found it when reading and article of a some fox kits hanging out at the top of some trees:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1707364.ece

wildlife getting "caught up" in the human world

Pictured here is an elk in Colorado comprised by a piece of furniture it picked up - likely while foraging on an urban edge.

According to the story, so far it hasn't been too much of a problem, as Colorado Division of Wildlife officer Craig Wescoatt says:

“She’s very active. The bar stool doesn’t seem to be impairing her to any great degree,” he observed, “She just looks kind of goofy.”

For a "lighter take" on this incident, you can check out his blogger's view:

Top five explanations for why an elk ended up with a barstool around its neck

Also, the ABC news clip

------------------------------->

This reminds me of the issue of sea birds and other creatures getting caught up in six-pack plastic rings. In one dramatic case a turtle whose development was completely altered by growing up corseted by one of these things was found and dubbed the "Figure Eight Turtle." Video here.

Ah, Homo faber.



AY

Bedbugs Chicago

This article and accompanying video in the Chicago Tribune this morning couldn't be more timely given our visit from Sara from Smithereen yesterday and her discussion about the city's growing bedbug problem.

Describing them as "dastardly pests" the article mentions of furniture picking from alleys and used furniture sales through Craigslist is one mode of spread through the city.

And the causes?

"Entomologists say the resurgence in bedbugs is the result of tougher restrictions against the use of toxic pesticides such as DDT, which was banned in 1972, increased travel to Third World countries and the bugs' growing resistance to modern insecticides."

wow = yikes


AY

my, what big calves you have....

Yes, this photos is exactly what you think it is: the paper cylinders in which a 23 year-old man attempted to smuggle in two live pigeons to Australia. Oh, when will people think of something new?

Stopped at the Melbourne airport for what I would assume might be an awkward gait, this fellow was busted for being a vehicle for a potentially invasive species.

He also was carrying an undeclared eggplant.



AY

Cat Camera

Seattle -- filmmakers / cat owners, Michael and Deirdre Cross
give their cat, Cooper, a camera to wear around Seattle.
Cooper's photographs are then exhibited in art gallery.

"We tried to get as big of a range of photos as possible," Michael Cross said. "He takes beautiful nature and wildlife scenes and amazing abstracts. He also takes a couple portraits -- one of a friend of ours and one of another cat, finally. We're now calling it Cooper's girlfriend."

"It really is a different view. I think of our neighborhood as very urban but through his eyes, it's green, lush, going through backyards and shortcuts," Deirdre Cross said. "I feel like I have a different relationship with it through his perspective."



more unbelievable quotes from the Cross family here:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/399900_cooper13.html


JS

goth pets

The RedEye had a blurb this last week among its almost predictable animal coverage, showm here.

Fox News recently had a feature on this case, though I can't say I like the commentators anymore than I might the pet-piercers they are criticizing...

Of course, there is a whole other way to look at the "goth pet" notion in Goth culture, as illustrated by this charming young British couple. Whatever else you might think of it, they rock it pretty well, really.

AY

Obama as Ape

Well, leave it to The New York Post to mix it all up with the cartoon below a la Travis and President Obama.

The Post's half-hearted apology claims "Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else." Which "sometime" is that time, and which isn't? If editorial cartoonism prides itself (perhaps self-indulgently) on anything, it is the layers of meaning employed. Clearly it is not just me who has a hard time reading this layer as anything but employing the wel-worn racist metaphor of "black as ape"...?


AY

Coyote Highway

This video claims a coyote goes "wild" on the interstate this week in Indiana. Seems just a tad ironic - How might this animals be regarded as anything but "wild" in Cementland? Perhaps if it was driving a SUV...



AY

My little pony

Guide horses are the new wave of service animals. They outlive seeing-eye dogs and aren't constantly distracted by a super-powered sense of smell the way their canine counterparts are. As with any domesticated or wild animal living in a predominantly human world, there are issues. More than I could have imagined.

Check out this article. It makes me think we need animals much more than they need us. Click on the image from the Guide Horse Foundation to learn more about them.

the sad case of Travis the Chimpanzee

A truly sad and strange story from this week's news:

We read about the dangers of exotic pets in terms of affecting the ecosystem they sometimes escape into in their new countries as invasive species. Here perhaps is a twist on this? A chimp - brought as a performer from it home in Africa and then given up to be a domesticated pet - suffers a major break with its adopted human companions.

This chimpanzee threw a fatal tantrum when it wasn't allowed to go for a car ride after its dinner of fish & chips and caramel ice cream. On medication for Lyme disease and reportedly put put Xanex by its keeper when unruly. We want them to be animals and humans at the same time, all the time.

Watch the TV news coverage

AY

Vulture getting "up" in a pilot's business

In considering the recent bird strike in NYC that downed a US Airways plane, consider this news blurb abut another feathered bird taking down a metal version.

Speaking of vultures in Florida, I noticed this December in Tampa that turkey vultures completely dominate downtown, gliding about and perching atop on the ledges of various tall buildings by the hundreds. It is downright eerie - and course the locals notice too. It could be they love the beaches down there.

AY

Zoorotica

The Binder Zoo in Mi-chi-gan has decided to pimp out their animals Valentine's stylely with there program "Zoorotica". A behind the scenes look at the mating habits of animals. Of course I am in support of thinking about these things and spreading the word in general. Perhaps I could get behind this "Zorotica" didn't immediately bring to mind the image of a rotting zoo... Watching animals is one thing, the Gaze upon them maybe is another. PETA of course loves to get the smutty-on for the sake of the animals too, they could cosponsor their recent Amarillo event together with the zoo? (photo naturally a la Nat'l Geo)

AY

Dog For Sale

I got this forwarded to me in an e-mail right after the first day of class, this woman was trying to sell her dog and this was her sales pitch:
Dog For Sale
Free to good home. Excellent guard dog. Owner cannot afford to feed him anymore, as there are no more drug pushers, thieves, murderers, or molesters left in the neighborhood for him to eat. Most of them knew him as "Holy Shit!"
-arf

Urban Nature Landscapes of W Chicago Ave. and Kolmar

mm

baby animal picture parade

ABC News is particularly fond of animal photos. For example, this slideshow I call the Baby Animal Photo Parade. The captions are interesting to consider in terms of how the animals are talked about in relation to their parents, humans, and the zoos they are usually born in. The compositional qualities of these photos are also interesting to think about, as well as the slideshow format.

How does this slideshow itself operate in the broader sphere of thinking about Animals As Nature in the context of the urban, or for that matter the Internet? Is the internet a natural extension of bring urban and the internet part of the new zoo: Every critter you could ever want to see globally and yet right there?
AY

let's call them "rock doves" shall we?

Regarding the idea of "flying rats" in the other recent post, I just thought I'd add my own contribution to that pigeony discussion and mention a new zine the Small Science Collective (of which I am a member) just put out the other day. You can read about it and a number of other timely pigeon topics there, as well as download the zine itself!

AY

Protect the horses

Protesters last Saturday gathered in front of the Water Tower to demonstrate against the drivers of the horse-drawn carriages.  There protestations included microphones and loud declarations that these horses were not happy and shouldn't be working to schlep tourists around.  I have often wondered where the horses are boarded, and what their working conditions are truly like. My observation was the horses that draw these carriages don't look abused, are seem to be well fed. I ask what does a horse in the city do to earn it's oats? 

MPM

Flying Rats

An interesting sculpture by Kader Attia.  "Flying Rats" consists of a giant cage in which pigeons feast on children sculpted in birdseed.  For a full article in the New Yorker, click here.

-CC

The Mongoose (Helogale Parvula)

Taken from a footnote in "The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, pg.15

"The Mongoose, one of the great unstable particles of the universe and also one of it's many travelers. Acompaied humanity out of Africa and after a long furlough in India jumped ship to the other India, a.k.a the Caribbean. Since it's earliest apperance in the written record- 675 B.C.E, in a nameless scribe's letter to Ashurbanipal's father, Esarhaddon- the mongoose has proven itself to be an enemy of kingly chariots, chains, and hierarchies. Belived to be an ally of man, many Watchers suspect that the Mongoose arrived to our world from another, but to date no evidence of such migration has been unearthed".

mm

Lots of the animals in the city are often symbolic in nature, living their live as mascots, brand logos, and the like. As we see with our various Chicago sports teams, Bulls, the Bears, to Cubs - we are up to our ears in animal icons.

Thankfully though mythical animals also make appearances as well - if we are going to get so behind the idea of animals perhaps even more than animals themselves, they might as be fantastic, animate, and thousands of years old. So enter the dragons at Chinese New Year. I captured this one lat weekend walking down at Cermak and Wentworth - dancing its fancy dance and being all big and crazy. What's not wonderful about them? I'd be curious what the pigeons make of these beasts, the only ones (besides police horses?) that get serious right-of-way in the streets.

Of course it is Year of the Ox, and I think particularly how Sydney decided to trick out their bovine imagery to have that city sensibility, all 70's neon like.

AY

Working camel healthcare in the city of Jaipur!

An interesting video posted this week on ABC news about a free health program for the camels of Jaipur who work in the city hauling things to and fro.....

Puppy Bowl V

Yesterday I watched some of the Superbowl in the companionship of my friend's Miniature Fox Terrier, Rocket. He jumped on my lap and started greedily drinking the beer in my glass, which I have to say surprised me. To think that this little guy derived from a wolf, sitting on my lap, sipping suds, and his kin taking part in the alternate superbowl - yes, I am talking about Puppy Bowl V.

The Animal Planet channel has taken domestication to its next post-industrial step: commerical sports. I think it is really more like rugby than football given the dogs don't in fact where helmets, right? What's interesting about dog play and soprts play though is that the former has no points, which is kind of a relief.

If you want to get a glimpse of last year's puppy bowl it is also out on the interwebs (but naturally, isn't this exactly what youTube caters to?) Last year's bout doesn't look as good as this year's game - I suspect the players from last year already retired anyway....

AY

Buggy Blagojevich?

Today our new governor of Illinois, Patrick Quinn, announced the following:

"We've had a body blow to our politics and government in the last seven weeks and two days but that's over," Quinn said at a news conference. "Today is a beginning, a start. ... We're going to start to fumigate state government from top to bottom to make sure it has no corruption."

For ex-governor Blagojevich, perhaps this is an appropriate metaphor - or should we say "metamorphosis"? Indeed, Rod-as-Bug seems to be in the collective unconscious right now, if this print for sale on Etsy.com is any indication.

Oh, but the insects do get a bad rap. Fumigate? Impeachment might be enough: I'll take a fly to the ex-governor any day of the week.....

Zoos in the financial downturn

The World Conversation Society just put out a PSA on New York's cutting of 55% of state support for zoos and aquariums due to budget shortfall in the current economic crisis:



Funding for programs like zoos are often a prime target of budget cuts. What does it say about the priority of animals in the city and their care given they are (literally) captive to the funds that government provides? In the end is this strategy actually cost effective or social beneficial given how popular zoos are, especially in Chicago? This will be a topic for us to explore more later in the semester. Some related articles....

Syracuse Porcupine gets Pink Slip

When Zoos cut Budgets, No Species is Safe

ay