Burmese Pythons in the Everglades Backcountry
This is a new thing to have to be aware of when camping the Everglades Backcountry. I usually go twice a year camping starting around January and up through February and even into March if the weather remains cool. I need about three good cold fronts to knock down the mosquito population so October is too buggy and December just hasn’t had enough fronts to do the trick.
It used to be we had to worry about raccoons coming into camp and stealing our food. Bungee cords were a necessity to secure coolers and food boxes from the prying hands of raccoons that would show up at night or when we were away from camp. Today, raccoons are no longer a problem - Why? Because the pythons that now infest the Everglades have eaten them all.
The python shown above is the same size (17-feet) of one I saw 3-years ago swimming between two mangrove islands deep in a backcountry bay not too far from this camping chickee. In all likelihood it might be the same one.
I can tell you today before we actually step off our boats and on to a campsite we spend several minutes surveying the camp site to make sure there aren’t any eyes staring back at us. So, far I haven’t encountered a python
