Fort Lauderdale duo breaks record with 18.9-foot python caught in Everglades
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Two Burmese python hunters from Fort Lauderdale broke a Florida record with an 18.9-foot female phyton. “Every single python that we take out is one less consuming our native wildlife, and that is what’s it’s all about," Pavlidis said. “The second I turned, my heart dropped out of my chest.”The python was in the water. Officials with the FWC and SFWMD said the python was the largest hunters had ever caught and removed from the Everglades. The FWC and SFWMD reported hunters with the elimination program have removed more than 5,000 pythons from the Everglades ecosystem.
Orphaned baby manatee rescued in the Keys
ISLAMORADA, Fla. – An orphaned infant manatee was rescued Saturday after being spotted by homeowners that there was something beneath underwater rocks along their dock. The Dolphin Research Center’s (DRC) Manatee Rescue Team and volunteers with Dolphins Plus Marine Mammal Responder unit assisted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Committee to corral the calf with netting. They then successfully scooped the manatee from the water using a large hoop net. They did not know why the calf separated from her mom. On Sunday afternoon, a Seaquarium veterinarian said the manatee was in “guarded condition.”After evaluation and treatment, she was placed in a pool with an older orphaned female manatee.
Crews free five beached whales in Florida
REDINGTON BEACH, Fla. - Crews worked to rescue five whales in distress in the Gulf of Mexico Monday. Deputies from Florida Fish and Wildlife and officials from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium were on the shore of Redington Beach where the whales are stranded close to shore. Tents were placed over the whales to try to keep them cool. Large crowds have been gathered along the beach to watch and help with the rescue efforts. Two of the whales were taken to an animal rehabilitation facility and three were released back into the Gulf.