It was more than 10 years ago that I found my first Everglades Burmese python, Python molurus bivitattus. A little over 7 feet in length, the snake was crawling slowly across the roadway and rather than trying to escape when we neared, it simply coiled slightly and stopped crawling. At no time did it display the slightest hostile behavior.



About a year and a half later, I found a second example. Like the first, although larger, this one showed no hostility causing me to ask myself "what is with these pythons?"

Another 2 years passed and I found a third python, a 5 footer, that was a little feisty - but only a little.

In August of 2011, I found a fresh DOR hatchling, still well within the Everglades, but outside the boundaries of the National Park.

And then in 2014, a friend and I found a 10 footer: an underweight male that was far more interested in avoiding us than in confrontation.

5 pythons in over ten years found during more than 25 Everglades sojourns that had pythons as at least one of the target species. That's not very many. Admittedly these were only road sightings and well over 1,500 of the big snakes have been documented, removed, and euthanized.

I didn't hike through choice python habitat, which according to experts is nearly anyplace you chose to hike. As most recent trips drew to a close without the sighting of even one python, I couldn't help but think of the great and much lauded FWC sponsored python hunt of 2013. This fiasco, dubbed a success by the "experts," turned up only 68 pythons which was the cumulative result achieved by almost 1,600 hunters over a period of nearly a month.

Over the last 10 years, I have seen several Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades. Except for a single DOR hatchling, those I have seen were between 5 and 12 feet in length. Whether you call this unfortunate or fortunate, it is a fact. Although there is no question that pythons should not exist in Florida, since they are here due stupidity or accident I am glad that I have had the opportunity to make their acquaintance.

More photos below...