Ian Bartoszek didn\u2019t need the beeping radio receiver to know there were pythons nearby. As his team of four walked single-file into the dense oak woods of South Florida, they couldn\u2019t help but notice snake sheds littering the ground. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 10 years of doing this I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen this much snake sign in one place,\u201d says Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist and science coordinator for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida<\/a>. \u201cThe ferns were all batted down. It looked like a group of bears had been rolling around but it wasn\u2019t bear sign, it was snake sign. So we knew it was about to get real.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As he monitored the receiver, Bartoszek guided his colleague Ian Easterling, who was cutting trail, with instructions like \u201celeven o\u2019clock\u201d and \u201cone\u2019o clock.\u201d The other two teammates kept an eye out for invasive snakes and had already picked up a pair when the woods thinned and someone announced, \u201cPythons.\u201d<\/p>\n There, in a sunny patch of crushed ferns, was their scout snake \u2014 a radio-tagged Burmese python named Hisstopher \u2014 and a writhing ball of pythons containing five males and one 85-pound female, with two other males nearby. All told, Feb. 21 was a record-setting day for the researchers: In one 24-hour period Bartoszek\u2019s team had busted up two breeding balls<\/a> and removed 11 snakes, or roughly 500 pounds of invasive pythons, from the landscape.<\/p>\n The discovery wasn\u2019t so much a surprise as another day in the life of Bartoszek\u2019s team, which has been diligently tracking scout snakes in a 150-square mile area outside Naples through the winter as part of a decades-long fight against invasive Burmese pythons. In the time since the Conservancy of Southwest Florida began its radio telemetry program in 2013, the team has removed a total of 35,000 pounds of pythons, or about 1,300 snakes, from the landscape. <\/p>\n So far researchers have relied on 110 scout snakes to lead them to reproducing females in the Everglades over the years, with Bartoszek\u2019s team currently tracking about 40 tagged males. Python breeding season in South Florida peaks around Valentine\u2019s Day (\u201cyou can\u2019t make this stuff up\u201d) and Bartoszek\u2019s team is working seamlessly to locate, remove, and euthanize the invasive critters. As we\u2019ve previously reported, invasive pythons are devastating Florida\u2019s native wildlife<\/a>, with one 2023 study<\/a> showing pythons had consumed 76 different species, including whitetail deer, alligators, bobcats, muskrats, marsh rabbits, and great blue herons. (Less often, pythons become prey of native critters; a scout snake named Loki was killed by a bobcat last year.)<\/p>\n Pythons have also pushed farther north<\/a> since they were first recorded on the northern edge of the Everglades in 1979. Now wildlife managers are finally starting to regain ground in isolated areas thanks to our growing knowledge of the critters and removal efforts by experts like Bartoszek.<\/p>\n For roughly half the year, Conservancy researchers attempt to locate each scout snake in the Everglades. If the male is alone, the crew will move on to the next target, cycling through each of their numbered and named scouts every week or two. If the snake has company, Bartoszek\u2019s team moves like a well-oiled machine. \u201cPython,\u201d he explains, is a kill word for the team, and it triggers a coordinated response of team members pinning and bagging snakes. As his right-hand researcher Ian Easterling puts it, they all know how these late-winter snake-tracking missions are going to end.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou have a high probability of finding big females when you walk in on your males at this time of year,\u201d says Bartoszek. \u200b \u201cWe know these animals really well. We\u2019re tracking them, but we know how to read behavior so we\u2019re hunting them at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the high ecological stakes, python hunting with a team of experts is just plain fun. Occasionally they run out of bags or capture a snake so big it won\u2019t fit into a bag, as was the case with one of the big females they caught in Collier County last month that had to be carried out over their shoulders. The crew packs the pythons back to the Conservancy lab where they\u2019re studied and euthanized. One common criticism from the public (often delivered via social media ) is that researchers should just shoot the pythons where researchers find them in the field. That\u2019s inadvisable for a few reasons, says Bartoszek.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re much easier to move around when they\u2019re alive than when they\u2019re dead. In the breeding season they tame down real quick. I think there\u2019s some kind of hormonal thing going on. It\u2019s how I was able to get that snake in the kayak. She was a little upset and then she was like, \u2018alright\u2019, and she sort of went limp. We know the drill and we\u2019re able to put them in the bag. \u2026 It\u2019s a pretty impressive creature. We have a lot of respect for this animal and they\u2019re here through no fault of their own. But invasive species management doesn\u2019t have a happy ending.\u201d<\/p>\n Radio telemetry at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida started as a python research project and has since evolved into a removal program.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe study the animal to better understand how to remove them. It\u2019s definitely the front lines of applied science for invasive species,\u201d says Bartoszek. \u201cA few years into the study we realized our males are finding us big females so we weaponized the snakes.\u201d<\/p>\n Deploying scout snakes has become the most effective python management tool available to wildlife managers, with the US Geological Survey and the University of Florida also running snake-tracking programs. Useful though it is, the technology is anything but modern.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re using old-school technology. Radio telemetry is World-War-II-era tech. And we\u2019ve made that work, we have developed a methodology that works well for our area. But we are not winning the war. We are winning key battles.\u201d<\/p>\n In the decade that Bartoszek has been monitoring scout snakes outside of Naples, he has seen some of those males shift their home range.<\/p>\n \u201cOr they won\u2019t even lock onto breeding females during a breeding season. That\u2019s suggestive that there aren\u2019t as many reproductive targets for them. That tells me we\u2019re moving in the right direction,\u201d Bartoszek says. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re trying to hold the line outside of town while we wait for landscape-level control tools to be developed. We\u2019re not there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Necropsy](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/deer_pythons.jpg?w=2754\")
Expert Python Hunters<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/python_trackers_remove_mating_balls_6.jpg?w=1275\"){kind=tracking}
<\/figure>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/python_trackers_remove_mating_balls_2.jpg?w=1350\"){kind=tracking}
The Promise, and Limitations, of Scout Snakes<\/h2>\n
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