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Florida Python Challenge
The Florida Python Challenge is an annual, ten-day competition where professional and novice participants join in the effort to remove invasive Burmese pythons in Florida. Past the goal of removing pythons, the competition also serves as a conservation effort to raise awareness about invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...’ impacts to the local ecology and to encourage the public to continuously remove Burmese python, Burmese pythons from the wild. It is supported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and Ron DeSantis, Governor Ron DeSantis. Most recently, in 2024, the Florida Python Challenge resulted in the total removal of 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burmese Python (6887388927)
The Burmese python (''Python bivittatus'') is one of the List of largest snakes, largest species of snakes. It is native to a large area of Southeast Asia and is listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Until 2009, it was considered a subspecies of the Indian python, but is now recognized as a distinct species. It is an Burmese pythons in Florida, invasive species in Florida as a result of the pet trade. Description The Burmese python is a dark-colored non-venomous snake with many brown blotches bordered by black down the back. In the wild, Burmese pythons typically grow to , while specimens of more than are unconfirmed. This species is sexually dimorphic in size; females average only slightly longer, but are considerably heavier and bulkier than the males. For example, length-weight comparisons in captive Burmese pythons for individual females have shown: at length, a specimen weighed , a specimen of just over weighed , a specimen of weighed , and a spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trapping
Animal trapping, or simply trapping or ginning, is the use of a device to remotely catch and often kill an animal. Animals may be trapped for a variety of purposes, including for meat, fur trade, fur/feathers, sport hunting, pest control, and wildlife management. History Neolithic hunters, including the members of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of Romania and Ukraine (), used traps to capture their prey. An early mention in written form is a passage from the self-titled book by Taoism, Taoist philosopher Zhuangzi (book), Zhuangzi which describes Chinese methods used for trapping animals during the 4th century BCE. The Zhuangzi reads: "The sleek-furred fox and the elegantly spotted leopard ... can't seem to escape the disaster of nets and traps." "Modern" steel jaw-traps were first described in western sources as early as the late 16th century. The first mention comes from Leonard Mascall's book on animal trapping. It reads: "a griping trappe made all of yrne, the lowest b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March 3, 1879, to study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The agency also makes maps of planets and moons, based on data from U.S. space probes. The sole scientific agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior, USGS is a fact-finding research organization with no regulatory responsibility. It is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with major offices near Lakewood, Colorado; at the Denver Federal Center; and in NASA Research Park in California. In 2009, it employed about 8,670 people. The current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is "science for a changing world". The agency's previous slogan, adopted on its hundredth anniversary, was "Earth Science in the Pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cranial Cavity
The cranial cavity, also known as intracranial space, is the space within the skull that accommodates the brain. The skull is also known as the cranium. The cranial cavity is formed by eight cranial bones known as the neurocranium that in humans includes the skull cap and forms the protective case around the brain. The remainder of the skull is the facial skeleton. The meninges are three protective membranes that surround the brain to minimize damage to the brain in the case of head trauma. Meningitis is the inflammation of meninges caused by bacterial or viral infections. Structure The capacity of an adult human cranial cavity is 1,200–1,700 cm3. The spaces between meninges and the brain are filled with a clear cerebrospinal fluid, increasing the protection of the brain. Facial bones of the skull are not included in the cranial cavity. There are only eight cranial bones: The occipital, sphenoid, frontal, ethmoid, two parietal, and two temporal bones are fused to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pithing
Pithing is a technique used to immobilize or kill an animal by inserting a needle or metal rod into its brain. It is regarded as a humane means of immobilizing small animals being observed in experiments, and while once common in commercial slaughtering is no longer practiced in some developed countries on animals intended for the human food supply due to the risks of embedded metal fragments and general spread of disease. Current United States and European Union regulations prohibit importation of beef from cows pithed due to risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as mad cow disease). It is, however, encouraged for animals in emergency or specific disease control situations where the meat will not be consumed. Use Commercial slaughter An animal is first immobilized through captive bolt stunning. A pithing cane or rod is then inserted into the stunning hole and pushed to its full length; the rod then remains locked in the hole and is disposed of with the ani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brain
The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for special senses such as visual perception, vision, hearing, and olfaction. Being the most specialized organ, it is responsible for receiving information from the sensory nervous system, processing that information (thought, cognition, and intelligence) and the coordination of motor control (muscle activity and endocrine system). While invertebrate brains arise from paired segmental ganglia (each of which is only responsible for the respective segmentation (biology), body segment) of the ventral nerve cord, vertebrate brains develop axially from the midline dorsal nerve cord as a brain vesicle, vesicular enlargement at the rostral (anatomical term), rostral end of the neural tube, with centralized control over all body segments. All vertebr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptile
Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocephalia. About 12,000 living species of reptiles are listed in the Reptile Database. The study of the traditional reptile orders, customarily in combination with the study of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. Reptiles have been subject to several conflicting Taxonomy, taxonomic definitions. In Linnaean taxonomy, reptiles are gathered together under the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), which corresponds to common usage. Modern Cladistics, cladistic taxonomy regards that group as Paraphyly, paraphyletic, since Genetics, genetic and Paleontology, paleontological evidence has determined that birds (class Aves), as members of Dinosauria, are more closely related to living crocodilians than to other reptiles, and are thus nested among re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Veterinary Medical Association
The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is an American not-for-profit association founded in 1863 that represents more than 105,000 veterinarians. The AVMA provides information resources, continuing education opportunities, publications, and discounts on personal and professional products, programs, and services. The AVMA indicates that it lobbies for animal friendly legislation within a framework that supports the use of animals for human purposes (e.g., food, fiber, research, companionship). The AVMA Council on Education is the designated accrediting body for schools of veterinary medicine in the United States. The AVMA publishes the ''Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association'' (JAVMA) and the ''American Journal of Veterinary Research'' (AJVR). The AVMA's veterinary student organization is the Student American Veterinary Medical Association (SAVMA). History The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) was founded in 1863, when 40 delegates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Native Species
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equivalent to the concept of indigenous or autochthonous species. A wild organism (as opposed to a domestication, domesticated organism) is known as an introduced species within the regions where it was Human impact on the environment#anthropogenic, anthropogenically introduced. If an introduced species causes substantial ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage, it may be regarded more specifically as an invasive species. A native species in a location is not necessarily also endemism, endemic to that location. Endemic species are ''exclusively'' found in a particular place. A native species may occur in areas other than the one under consideration. The terms endemic and native also do not imply that an organism necessarily first o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bait (luring Substance)
Bait is any appetizing substance (e.g. food) used to attract prey when hunting or fishing, most commonly in the form of animal trapping, trapping (e.g. mousetrap and bird trap), ambushing (e.g. from a hunting blind) and angling. Baiting is a ubiquitous practice in both recreational (especially angling) and commercial fishing, but the use of live food, live bait can be deemed illegal fishing, illegal under certain fisheries law and local jurisdictions. For hunting, however, baiting can often be controversial as it violates the principles of fair chase, although it is still a commonly accepted practice in varmint hunting, culling and pest control. Uses Fishing Baiting is ubiquitously practised to catching fish. Traditionally, Lumbricus terrestris, nightcrawlers, small baitfish, insect adults and larvae have been used as standard fish hook, hookbait, and offals are commonly used as groundbait (a.k.a. chumming) in big-game fishing, blue water fishing. Modern fishermen have als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firearm
A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make the portable fire lance, operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon. The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other explosive propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore shotguns) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stabili ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burmese Pythons In Florida
Burmese pythons (''Python bivittatus'') are native to Southeast Asia. However, since the end of the 20th century, they have become an established breeding population in South Florida. The earliest python sightings in Florida date back to the 1930s and although Burmese pythons were first sighted in Everglades National Park in the 1990s, they were not officially recognized as a reproducing population until 2000. Since then, the number of python sightings has exponentially increased with over 30,000 sightings from 2008 to 2010. Burmese pythons prey on a wide variety of birds, mammals, and crocodilian species occupying the Everglades. Pronounced declines in several mammalian species have coincided spatially and temporally with the proliferation of pythons in South Florida, indicating the already devastating impacts upon native animals. The importation of Burmese pythons was banned in the United States in January 2012 by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Introduction Burmese pyth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
