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Great..Africa's Largest Snake is now In Florida

Brewster320

Brewster320

New member
Just when we thought it was bad enough with the burms in Florida. It appears the African Rock Python (Python sebae) is now taking up residence in the sunshine state...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090911-pythons-florida-giant-snakes.html

It gets me really mad how the call them "viscous snakes" and make them seem like monsters worse than burms are now in the glades and people are going to be more afraid of this. Just makes us look even worse, especialy with all these bads going on at the moment.

Although on a side note I wonder whats going to happen onces rocks meet up with the already well established burms in the glades. As far as evolution goes this could be some what interesting. Will one species out compete the other, will they coexist and stick to their own kind or area, or will they hybridnize and possibly over time give rise to a new species of python? It might not be a good thing for us for the enviroment but evolution wise the scene is set for something straight out of Darwin's "Orgin of Species".

Either way I hope this doesn't get blown to far out of poportion and make things worse for us reptile owners.
 
Hypancistrus said:
And the good news for our hobby keeps coming....
Click to expand...
You know... that's the part that really has me perturbed... there are SOOOOO many of us that are responsible pet owners. There are a many that could be better, but do okay. There are many that are way off, but responsible enough to NOT release a snake like this into the wild.

THEN, there are the individuals who are such complete idiots that they buy the first thing they see or think is kewl and then RELEASE them into the wild when they become too hard for them to handle.

Sometimes, certain genes should simply be.... Never mind.
 
The_Thunderer said:
You know... that's the part that really has me perturbed... there are SOOOOO many of us that are responsible pet owners. There are a many that could be better, but do okay. There are many that are way off, but responsible enough to NOT release a snake like this into the wild.

THEN, there are the individuals who are such complete idiots that they buy the first thing they see or think is kewl and then RELEASE them into the wild.

Sometimes, certain genes should simply be....
Click to expand...
...Extinguished?. I'm in total agreement. Not for the sake of reptile ownership, but for the sake of them ruining an ecosystem that's been in place for millions of years. It's so destructive to release things like this into a foreign environment, and I can only pray that the population doesn't spread. All it's going to take is two to tango, and soon enough the everglades will be crawling with Rock Pythons. Fingers crossed.....
 
Wow.. That's not good. I mean I know burms can be mean and get big.. But African Rock Pythons.. I haven't really heard one good thing about them.. They are big and mean. Lol.. I have seen very few ads of them being captive bread. They just seem like a bad idea to own.

In this case though, yea thats not good.
 
Now that's one big snake I REALLY don't want to run in to in the 'glades. I mean, I've heard about the temperaments of CB ones (from people that actually own them), so I can only imagine what a wild one is going to be like.
 
Oh great, and the nonsense starts...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/asupersnake;_ylt=At5o9iWenFUbnnyWkb9Q1ISs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJ1NGZka2UxBGFzc2V0A2NzbS8yMDA5MDkxNC9hc3VwZXJzbmFrZQRjcG9zAzkEcG9zAzYEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNpbnRlcmJyZWVkaW4-

To start off with from what I've read on "Cateaters" (rock x burms) is that they are infact smaller than either parent species(males 7-9ft and 20-40lbs, females 10-12ft and 40-60lbs) and are docile in temperment(well compared to a pure af rock) so the idea of a giant super aggressive man eating monster just doesn't hold up..
 
The rock python "is mean right out of the egg, and they don't ever tame down," says Kenneth Krysko
Click to expand...

"You keep introducing things and, yeah, you don't know what's going to turn out." says Kevin Enge
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Maybe its just me but I have really lost respect for both of these individuals after reading their quotes in the linked articles. I believe Kenneth has just nullified any of his research and legitimacy in my opinion that was just an ignorant comment to make to a newspaper. Same with Kevin though I have lost respect for him slowly due to his actions and stands on certain topics. African Rocks have gotten a bad rad much like Retics since there were a lot of imports and few CB for a while. On another note hybrid vigor doesn't relate to the size of animals typically but their ability to thrive in captivity, I have yet to see a hybrid grow much larger than the largest species in the mix but then again I haven't kept up on recent happenings in that area in the last couple years so that could have changed.
 
Just remember when keeping Rocks to use a wire fence viv. :grin01:
 

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They have been down there for a while. I saw a story a few years back, about the time the burm/alligator pic came out where an afrock got into a chicken coupe and ate a bunch of them. I have owned a few afrocks over the years and they were considerably more jumpy and nervous than burms. People have been breeding burms/afrocks for many years and david (from high end herps) put the cateater name on them. I have read that there have been retics, burms, yellow and green condas, various boas and african rocks in the glades for years and I tend to believe it.
 
Okay everyone..time to bring out the banners and flags "SAY NO TO BILL ??????"!!! You know it's coming...lol..
 
The_Thunderer said:
Interesting... so "Hybrid vigor" does not apply?
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure. I was thinking it's possibly something like a "tigon" (male tiger x female lion). While the liger (male lion x female tiger) is famous for it's massive size tigons are actually smaller than either parent. It has to do with certain genes one parent has and the other doesn't or both do or do not have ect, ect.. It could still have hybrid vigor, just for some reason the genes for truely massive size have been turned off. I don't know if a F2 cateater has ever been produced but it's likely and F2 cateater could get the genes for large size because certain resscive genes for size could meet up again.
 
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