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cobras in the Everglades
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by bush_viper17 on December 20, 2004
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I've heard that cobras are sometimes seen in the Florida Everglades. I've also heard that green anacondas are there also. Is this true?
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by pitviperidae on December 20, 2004
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I am sure its true..there are Burmese Pythons there for sure! Florida is full of reptile species that do not belong there..! Due to people letting them go or they escape from their "escape proof" enclosures!
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by Snake17 on December 20, 2004
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Our Danube Delta in Romania is somewhat simillar to the Everglades and I got word this summer that cottonmouths are found there. I would like it to be true.
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by LarryDFishel on December 20, 2004
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I can't give you a difinitive "no", but I live in South Florida and volunteer at a refuge on the edge of the everglades, and the only exotic snake species of any significance that I know has a breeding populaion down here is the burmese python.
They've become established because of a combination of factors. 1) Commonly kept as pets. 2) Commonly grow too big for thier owners to handle. 3) People don't think twice about releasing them because they are "harmless". 4) Somewhat similar to their natural habitat.
Solitary escaped individuals of many species turn up now and then (including one spitting cobra that I'm aware of, but found within yards of where it escaped), but most don't exist in large enouh numbers to breed...
I've heard that people have seen cobras in the everglades. I've also heard of 10 foot eatern diamondbacks, met 3 different people (from different states) who know the kid who died almost instantly after picking up a handfull of baby cottonmouths, met people who have seen hundreds of cottonmouths (and killed most of them) but have never seen any species of nerodia, lots of people that obviously couldn't tell the difference between a cottonmouth an a black racer, and virually everyone I meet thinks that cobras crawl around with thier hoods spread at all times until they see ours and ask what they are. So, until someone credible brings me 4 or 5 specimens of the same species of cobra from the everglades (we've recieved many burmese caught there), I will be fairly skeptical.
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by AquaHerp on December 20, 2004
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Racers will often pick their heads up fairly high when roaming around. And we all know that the hognose can give quite a convincing performance, both perhaps giving rise to cobra rumors. The rest is probably idle talk, and glorified hearsay. Cobras would have a pretty rough time becoming established in the Everglades. Granted a great many species are, snake species are not among the more resiliant thus far.
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by Crotalus_Catcher on December 20, 2004
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I was watching the Animal Cops show on Animal Planet and a guy had reporting seeing cobras on his property. If I recall correctly, a forrest cobra, a spitting cobra, and a king cobra were all found, although they knew where they had escaped from so I don't think there were thriving populations.
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by Phobos on December 20, 2004
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Scott's right about that Animal Cops episode..I saw it too. Unless it was staged.
Al
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by Crotalus_Catcher on December 20, 2004
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Man, my last posts have all been about Animal Planet shows....I should get out more, haha. Hopefully with my film degree I can get a job from them (HINT HINT IF ANY STAFF READ THIS), but for now, I guess I'll be content just watching Animal Planet.
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RE: cobras in the Everglades
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by tmj_reptiles on December 21, 2004
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I'm not sure how true this is but someone told me another reason for some of the introduced species is that we have plants shipped in from south america and the animals will travel hidden the plants.
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