A Florida researcher has been doing road counts of wildlife in that part of the country for quite a while. He reports 98% reduction in raccoons, 100% of opossums, 80-something reduction in bobcats, and 90-something reduction of deer just in the last 10 years. Florida has now banned the import of most snakes but are allowing people who own them to trade/swap/sell their current stock. The pet trade in Florida says these snakes are not to blame for the lack of small, medium, and large mammals in the python infested zone.
Really? I'll give 'em $1,000 to go camping out there for a weekend if they will take their kids, too. Something tells me that money is safer than Fort Knox.