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Apr 21, 2009 10:08 am US/Central
Meter Readers Turn Into Python Patrol
MARATHON, Fla. (CBS) ―
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This python broke open after ingesting an entire alligator in the Florida Everglades.
AP
Pythons, there are plenty of them in the Everglades, and they're not supposed to be there. They're spreading into neighborhoods and backyards like the plague, and the first line of defense might be your neighborhood meter reader.
Juan Lopez reads water meters in the City of Marathon in the Keys. He has also become the first line of defense against the potential predator, CBS station WFOR-TV reports.
"I think I'm prepared for this," said Lopez. "Actually, I'm excited; I would like to find them and get rid of them."
He's talking about Burmese Pythons, up to 20-feet-long and more, and weighing more than 200 lbs. Lopez is a member of the python patrol—teams of utility workers, wildlife officers, police and park rangers specially trained to catch these non-venomous snakes.
They pythons used for the class are brought in by Miami-Dade County's venom unit. The main idea is to get behind them, grab their tail and tire them out, but don't take your eyes off of them. Finally they work their way to the reptile's head.
The patrols were created by the Nature Conservancy to stop the snakes from gaining a foothold in the Florida Keys.
"If we can keep them from spreading and breeding then we're that much more ahead of the problem," said Alison Higgins, with the Nature Conservancy.
This mess got started, wildlife experts say, when python owners realized their pets had suddenly grown too big to handle an dumped them in the Everglades, just to the north of here the Python population exploded--an estimated 30 thousand live in the Everglades.
Last year more than 300 were captured and there's nothing biologists haven't found in their stomachs, like the python that literally came apart after eating an alligator.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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