"USDA seeking to build better python trap" by Jennifer Kay | Associated Press, September 27, 2013
MIAMI — Federal wildlife officials alarmed by an infestation of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades have tried radio tracking devices, a massive public hunt, and even snake-sniffing dogs to control the invasive species. Now there is talk of snaring the pythons in specially designed traps.
The Department of Agriculture received a patent in August for a long, thin cage with a net at one end for the live capture of large, heavy snakes.
Researchers say Burmese pythons regard the Everglades as an all-you-can-eat buffet, where native mammals are easy prey and the snakes have no natural predators. The area’s population of Burmese pythons, which are native to India and other parts of Asia, probably developed as snakes that were owned as pets were released into the wild, either intentionally or in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Officials are racing to control the python population before it undermines efforts to restore natural water flow through the Everglades. According to a recent study, mammal sightings in the Everglades are down sharply in areas where pythons live.
The Gainesville field station for the National Wildlife Research Center, which falls under the Department of Agriculture, is preparing to test the trap in a natural enclosure that contains five pythons.
Over the coming months, researchers will try baiting the traps with the scent of small mammals such as rats, and they will try camouflaging them as pipes or other small, covered spaces where pythons like to hide, said John Humphrey, a biologist at the research center. Future tests may use python pheromones as bait.
‘‘There’s still more to be learned, and there’s still more to be tested,’’ Humphrey said. ‘‘This is just one of your tools that you have to put together with other things to get the problem solved.’’
The trap was developed to catch exotic snakes without ensnaring smaller native species, Humphrey said.
The 5-foot-long trap is made from galvanized steel wire with a tightly woven net on one end. Two triggers need to be tripped simultaneously for it to close, which should keep it from trapping such native snakes as the eastern diamondback rattlesnake or the water moccasin.
‘‘The largest native snakes are generally somewhat smaller than the youngest of the pythons,’’ Humphrey said. ‘‘That was the impetus of the design.’’
The longest python ever caught in Florida was an 18-foot-8-inch snake found in May beside a rural Miami-Dade County road.
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Related: Florida's Python Hunt
