Don't know if anyone heard about this... http://www.northjersey.com/news/alligator-caught-in-passaic-river-in-elmwood-park-1.1370314 Now this might be commonplace in Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, or the like, but this is not normal for NJ... Someone let their "pet" go...
Main gator pops start in North Carolina go south to Florida, back out west through lower Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Not that many in Arkansas but they have been found. Her in Florida they are taken seriously, extremely dangerous animals.
...^^^ also found in my home state are some absolute monster pythons/boas. Originally bought as pets, they were either turned loose by the owners because they either no longer wanted them or they became to large to handle or the snakes somehow simply escaped. Plenty of food down in Florida and the say some of these huge snakes have migrated to the everglades where they have taken over and grow even larger and multiply.
There is a python hunt scheduled down there very soon. When finding out my family had come to Florida in '64 I had to come down prior to overseas deployment. My father had gotten a job at Cape Canaveral and they lived on Merritt Island. I asked guys from Florida where Merritt Island was and nobody had heard of it. When I arrived and started looking around it was like being in Florida when the Spanish first came. Very few people lots of animals to include gators, they'd be sunning themselves on the back roads. Water Moccasins aplenty in the Indian & and Banana Rivers. Realy crazy. When I came back three + years later it was all built up but you'd still see gators in the boat canals.
It happens very often with these idiots and their exotic pets. They just go dump it in the water not realizing they're letting a predator on the loose.
Yeah, dangerous situation in Florida. Burmese Pythons. Experts say there's no telling how big these pythons can grow in the perfect environment of the swamps/weather/prey. "Pets" which were turned loose....some of these bastards can kill and swallow gators, and say bye bye to the fauna who haven't developed defenses or evolved according to those monsters and could eventually be annihilated depending on the numbers of pythons. They've finally put a bounty on the snakes and turned the hunters loose. No more catch and release crap in an area away from people. Familiar with this? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/largest-burmese-python-ever-caught_n_3307706.html
...yeah, I had an Uncle who worked at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy and lived in Titusville (great fishing) and nearby was Cocoa Beach which may have the biggest waves in the state. We lived near Orlando and the "gang" I hung out with typically played baseball during the day and camped out at night in the swamps of what now is part of Disney World. Like you say, the area back then was so much different when I was growing up ...good times.
My brother & I were canoeing in Penny Camp Park by Key Largo. His wife tipped the canoe while we were in brackish water. You never seen two people put it back upright so fast in your life. First thing I thought of were Moccasins, aggressive little bastards they are. Couple days later I went out on jet skis for the first time. The early models that looked like water skis with a motor attached. Out there having a good time when my brother mentioned if I saw fins it was probably a Dolphin or Porpoise. I said to hell with it and cruised in, I remembered some breeds of shark can swim fast, not only that you have to consider barracuda.
...I'm guessing that you just give 'em a rat/mouse every so often? ...snakes have never creeped me out like they do many people...I handled quite a few as a youngster (garter snakes, glass snakes, rat snakes, etc...I dated this girl back in the 80's who had a beautiful albino boa about 4 feet long. It was fun to play with but after awhile it would get annoyed and would let you know by biting you...sometimes gently, sometimes not so gently...that's when he went back in his aquarium.
When I was at the Salk we had an issue with Jackson shorting us on rat shipments. Turned out there was a tech in the vivarium skimming rats to feed to his snake at home. That's some serious shit, the dude went to a Federal prison.
I was really referring to the people that illegally obtain "pets" they shouldn't have and then do things which cause them to end up in areas they shouldn't be. Like it doesn't dawn on them that it might be a problem when the gator starts growing? Then it's like I'm going to get in trouble so why do something responsible like taking it to a zoo. Lets just release it in a nearby water source. Then the damn things ends up in somebody's backyard pool. Not too much fun for the guy who like to take a late night jump in the pool.
I do like snakes though. My brother had a ball python growing up. The damn thing is over 20 years old and still alive. My daughter has a corn snake. Great pet. She loves it.
Wow, last thing I'd be looking for too, what a surprise that would be........ Did you see the 5th SNL show Justin Timberlake did, "Maine Justice", which was a parody of the Acadian Culture b/t Maine & Luzianna, hilarious skit, "got dem gators in Maine, oh yeah"....... The Timberlake Maine Justice Skit IMO is better than the J. Foxx version, .... Pass the Etoufee and Pistolette's, S'il vous plaît
+> Merritt Island....near Cocoa Beach? These huge snakes would be perfect in Chinese restaurant cuisine.
Its New freaking Jersey where anything can happen. Hope its caught and grilled. Croc meat tastes like chicken. Had it in New Orleans
Something that big could be fed a mini-pig, chicken, goat, chicken, guinea pig, etc. The biggest snake I had was only 8' long and he ate 3 "jumbo" rats a sitting... a jumbo rat is about 1 - 2 lbs each.... And that was 1 or 2 times a month depending on external temp/lighting requirements... So while he was only $10-15/month to feed, the one in that pic in post 3 would probably cost well more than 10 -20 times as much each month... probably quite a bit more than that 10 - 20 times if it was fussy and only would eat peacocks or something stupid like that...
Yeah, that doesn't fly any more... There was a time where I was able to get some from a previous place of employment because a study got canceled and the rats would have been too big by the time the next study came along and it cost money to keep a colony of essentially unused animals fed... It was then common place to no longer allow such a practice and any naive animals had to be donated to either a zoo or a raptor sanctuary... Now, that isn't even looked upon well and everything just gets incinerated... fear of litigation is such a PIA
My buddy has had a "pet" gator more than once... and each time, he'd release it into the wild... but he'd do so near the glades when he was en route to visiting his mother in Florida... so they were being put into their natural habitat... now a non-native species like a burm or retic shouldn't be released... that should go to the zoo or someone who knows how to care for them... That being said, these exotic species are pretty damn good looking compared to the native species...
