Comment by bbor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bbor | Hacker News Reader

Great article! That said,

  the Everglades and its web of life as we know it have existed for five thousand years. In the comparative blink of an eye, that intricate system has been upended.

...that doesn't sound so bad, when you put it like that. This is part of a bigger philosophical stance of mine: maybe the best course of action isn't "preserve nature exactly as we found it forever"? I definitely see the utility in ridding Florida of literal monsters, but in general, some of our fights against invasive species just seem... IDK, vain. Brazen. Arrogant. Like, they're considering an owl hunting program in the western US to protect the slower, shittier owls that already live there. What's the point? Will we have owl hunting season until the sun expands?

  She has been bitten more times than she can count; though not venomous, pythons possess rows of curved, needle-sharp teeth. .. “Use a floodlight to scan the ground near the truck, and look for an iridescence and a pattern... Shout ‘Python!’ if you think you see something, even if you’re not positive—it’s better to be wrong than to miss one."

...surely drones, night vision, and guns could help solve this problem? I understand that snakes can "remain conscious" after injury, but wrestling the pythons into a cage so you can execute them in your garage seems like a step too far. Maybe I'm underestimating how hard it would be to shoot a snake?

ETA: they do eventually reference "researchers using drones", so we're not the only ones to think of that. Not to rejoice in anyone losing their job of course, but I do hope that some automation makes this more feasible.

> ...surely drones, night vision, and guns could help solve this problem?

It takes an average of ten hours of searching per snake during which time they mostly drive around so I don’t think drones are a realistic option here due to flight time. There’s little benefit to searching far beyond the roads/levees because the swamp is a very tough terrain to navigate and it gets dangerous thanks to the gators.

Can’t use (real) night vision googles because any stray light from the car could blind the wearer and it would kill the driver’s peripheral vision making it impractical to drive.

Controlling invasive species is not just some sentimental thing about preserving the purity of nature. Invasive species can massively destabilize an ecosystem- wiping out huge numbers of other species, and destroying natural resources humans depend on for economic livelihood. It is hard to predict the severity of the end point, so best to head it off as aggressively and early as possible.

I'm not necessarily opposed to eradicating invasive species, but natural ecosystems are seldom stable. Populations boom and crash all the time for other reasons.

That sounds to me like saying "there's no reason to put out this kitchen fire I accidentally started in my house, since lighting sometimes starts fires naturally."

Natural ecological events can certainly be difficult for humans to deal with, and even cause mass famine, etc. - but we have many more recent cases of ecological catastrophe caused by humans.

factors causing immediate collapse are both extremely rare and tend to be uneven across species. These snakes have no natural enemies in Florida

FWC, the Universities, and the Water Management districts are testing out a lot of methods --- including drones armed with an AI-based imaging system to identify the snakes & eventually eliminate. Given they're cold blooded you need to have visual confirmation - finding heat signatures isn't easy. FWC also has a truck outfitted with LIDAR to detect them. My family and I drove around in their trucks with FWC and WM earlier this year hunting them and learning what can be done to try and help solve this issue.

The snakes are captured & bagged, then they are humanely eliminated using a bolt gun to the brain. The brain is then completely destroyed using a metal rod to ensure there's no more activity.

Dave Attel’s Insomniac goes to New Orleans. Surprisingly they don’t go with the nightlife, but he hangs out with a SWAT team sniper who practices by sitting in a pickup bed sniping nutria in the canals. Probably doesn’t work as well in the Everglades though.

> "preserve nature exactly as we found it forever"

It's not even "as we found it", it's "as it was at a certain arbitrary point in time". I've seen zero proposals to eliminate earthworms, honeybees, or dandelions from the Americas.

I'm fine with removing dandelions but good luck.

A single shot is unlikely to kill, and in these areas a snake can very quickly disappear into water or foliage. I doubt drones or night vision would help much for similar reasons - the issue lies as much in being able to reach the snakes as it does in being able to locate them. The Everglades are incredibly thick, a snake will easily outpace and hide from a human outside of roads. It does seem like there should be a better way than wrestling them but it's hard to say what that might be.

> A single shot is unlikely to kill

That's why they make guns that can load more than one bullet at a time. Also, maybe use a higher caliber bullet. Lot's of asinine pro-gun enthusiastic responses available for Florida man to retort with.

Python heads aren't exactly large and they are nocturnal. If it were easiest to just shoot them dead, that's exactly what they would be doing.

Gee thanks for explaining that for us all. Now I'd like to see you hit a fist-sized, moving target in the middle of the night, in the rain from the top of a pickup truck.

Shooting a snake in the head is pretty easy. Usually when you find one, it’s still in the water. Then you just follow the body around to the head. I use to do this all the time as a kid in the country hunting water snakes with a .22 rifle and scope.

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