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ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
 Posted: 24-02-2013 20:22 Post subject: |
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More mice paras in Guam.
| Quote: | US to bomb Guam with dead mice
http://rt.com/usa/us-snake-guam-mice-308/
In a desperate attempt to kill off two million brown tree snakes that are plaguing the territory of Guam, the US is bombing the island with poisoned dead mice, hoping that the snakes will eat them.
“We are taking this to a new phase. There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam,” Daniel Vice, assistant state director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services in Guam, told the Associated Press.
The pile of dead mice, laced with painkillers that are deadly for snakes, will rain down onto Guam’s jungle canopy as scientists drop them from helicopters in a last-ditch attempt to eradicate the invasive species.
Even though the venom of brown tree snakes is nonlethal for humans, the snake infestation has damaged infrastructure and wiped out other species in Guam. Slithering into homes, the snakes often bite people and damage power lines and wires, resulting in large-scale blackouts. The tree snakes can grow to more than 10 feet in length, although most of them are usually just a few feet long.
Nearly all of Guam’s native birds have become wiped out in the years since the tree snake first came to the island aboard a US military ship more than 60 years ago. With much of Guam’s wildlife having become endangered or extinct, tourism has dwindled, thereby inflicting an economic toll on the US territory.
Located 3,000 miles away, officials in the state of Hawaii have long feared that the snakes could make their way over to the tropical island and destroy its local habitat, as well.
Vice predicts that if the US and Guam make no attempts to contain the snakes, "the possibility of the snakes getting to Hawaii is inevitable."
The National Wildlife Research Center estimates that a Hawaiian brown tree snake infestation would inflict $593 million to $2.14 billion in economic damages each year, including widespread power outages and a significant decrease in tourism. In an attempt to control the Guam-based infestation and prevent it from spreading, the US government will bombard the island with the dead mice starting this spring. The painkillers that the mice will be laced with include acetaminophen, which is the active ingredient in medicines such as Tylenol.
Brown tree snakes are one of very few snake species that eat the corpses of dead animals that they didn’t kill themselves. Being highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, snakes that consume the dead mice will most likely expire.
Scientists will drop the dead mice individually from a helicopter. The bait will be attached to a flotation device with streamers that would ensure that the poisoned mice get caught in the branches of a tree, where the snakes live and feed.
Birds are also vulnerable to acetaminophen, but scientists claim that most of the birds have already been wiped out by the snakes anyway.
AP reports that the US government plans to begin dropping the poisoned mice in April or May. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 10-07-2013 21:25 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Australian police find 5.7m python in Queensland shop
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23254178
Python found in charity shop
Police initially thought a person had fallen through the roof
A 5.7m (19ft) python has been seized after it fell from the ceiling of a charity shop in Australia.
The python, weighing 17kg (37lbs), was recovered by a snake-handler after police investigated a suspected break-in at the shop in Ingham, Queensland.
"Its head was the size of a small dog," said police spokesman Sgt Don Auld.
The snake fell through a ceiling panel, smashing shop goods. Police said it may have got in through the roof, which was damaged by Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
When police were initially called to the property on Monday, they believed a person had fallen through the ceiling because the roof panel had been cut in half.
Crockery, clothes and other goods were scattered all over the floor.
Police were called back to the shop the following day when a large crowd formed outside.
Sgt Auld said the snake must have been hiding when police went there the first time.
It has been released in nearby wetlands. |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-09-2013 22:05 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Richard Parrinello, Animal-Control Officer, Hid 850 Snakes Worth $500,000 In His Home, Police Say
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/richard-parrinello_n_3960766.html
09/19/13 10:42 PM ET EDT AP
Richard Parrinello snakes in home
SHIRLEY, N.Y. -- An animal-control officer had hundreds of snakes, including two 6-foot Burmese pythons, at his home, where he ran an illegal side business selling them, authorities said Thursday.
There were 850 snakes worth half a million dollars in a detached garage at the Shirley home of Richard Parrinello, including the Burmese pythons, which are illegal in New York state, officials said.
"There is a reason why Burmese pythons are illegal," said Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross, citing the deaths of two young boys in New Brunswick, Canada, who were killed by an African rock python while they slept last month.
Gross said Burmese pythons can grow to 30 feet long and are "an accident waiting to happen."
Parrinello has worked on and off as an animal-control officer for the town of Brookhaven since 1988, town spokesman Jack Krieger said.
Authorities spotted the snakes during an investigation into whether Parrinello was working while on disability leave from his town job.
During a weeks-long undercover investigation, authorities said, investigators caught Parrinello on camera claiming he had $500,000 in inventory – including snakes, turtles and turtle eggs – stored in a garage he'd converted into habitat space.
Parrinello faces multiple charges of owning the pythons and violating town codes by running a business at his home without a permit. He was issued two violations by the state's Department of Environmental Conservation.
Authorities said Parrinello is cooperating. A man who answered the phone at a number listed on Parrinello's Snakeman's Exotics website said he had no comment.
Gross said the pythons were headed to an animal sanctuary in Massachusetts. It was unclear what would be done with the other snakes. |
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1528 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 23-09-2013 07:13 Post subject: |
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Snake on a plane - for real! 
| Quote: | Tiny snake on Qantas plane delays 370 passengers
A snake on a plane has delayed hundreds of Qantas passengers, who were forced to spend the night in a hotel when the reptile was discovered on-board the aircraft at Sydney International Airport on Sunday night.
The tiny snake, which measured just 20 centimetres long and was the width of a ball-point pen, was found wriggling near the door of QF21 on Sunday night. It was a little less threatening than the snakes in Jackson's 2006 fictional Hollywood blockbuster Snakes on a Plane, in which a nest of vipers causes death and destruction on a jet.
A Qantas spokeswoman said a cabin crew member discovered the critter before the 370 passengers boarded the plane, which was bound for Tokyo.
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The passengers were accommodated in hotels on Sunday night while quarantine inspectors caught and examined the snake. They are yet to determine what type it is.
The Qantas spokeswoman said the plane had been on the ground in Sydney all day on Sunday after an earlier flight from Singapore. The re-scheduled flight took off at 7.15am on Monday.
It's the second "snakes on a plane" moment for Qantas this year.
In January, a three-metre python hitched a ride on an early morning flight from Cairns to Papua New Guinea.
Passengers spotted the scrub python sitting outside on the wing of the plane.
It was believed to have crawled up inside the landing bay, before the wind caught the last 30 centimetres of its tail and pulled it straight out.
That snake did not survive the ordeal.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/tiny-snake-on-qantas-plane-delays-370-passengers-20130923-2u8nu.html#ixzz2fh4YCJ4B
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17938 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 09-10-2013 00:18 Post subject: |
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| Quote: | Snake thrown over fence and dumped in Orford, Warrington
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-24441273
The snake was dumped at Fordton Leisure Centre in Orford
A snake has been rescued after it was thrown over a fence in a box in Warrington, Cheshire.
Police said a 4ft (1.2m) snake was found on a footpath at midnight at the disused Fordton Leisure Centre on Chiltern Avenue, Orford.
A concerned resident reported seeing someone throwing a box over the fence.
Police said officers "exercised caution" as they did not know if the snake was dangerous. She said the RSPCA said the snake was unharmed.
PC Julia West, who described it as one of their more unusual callouts, said the RSPCA was now caring for snake and trying to identify what species it was.
She said officers had "absolutely no idea" who dumped the snake or why.
"We haven't been able to identify the person involved, the reasoning behind or why someone dumped it at this location."
PC West added: "It could possibly be someone's pet." |
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