Angie was a bit startled by what was waiting for her when her plane touched down in Tallahassee, Florida. The fight hadn't been terribly long, but it was long enough. Mostly in trying to find a way to remain comfortable on the flight. Much of this relates to the flight seats. For because Snake Animalians tended to move about like the mythical Naga or Lamia in which they only had their long tail to balance on, the sitting postures that Humans and other Animalians used weren’t practical for them. They'd be in a position that their spine was not designed for. And unlike Snake Animalians that were based off of venomous species, Angie found that her long and heavy muscular tail was not able to coil as tightly to fit within one seat... at least not easily. Thankfully Animalia Air included plenty of seats that were designed for Animalians with long and thick tails like hers.
But as she came out of the gate and toward the area of the airport where most people would be waiting for new arrivals, she was greeted by a sight she didn't expect to see. They were two men in uniforms. From what she could make out, she didn't think they were policemen, either state troopers or a city police department. Neither were they military style uniforms, so they couldn't be National Guardsmen, though Angie figured they'd be looking forward to Memorial Day celebrations coming up. To make matters all the more puzzling, they held up a cardboard sign with her name on it, like they were waiting for her.
"You were waiting for me?" Angie asked as she approached, looking a bit perplexed as she looked to them.
"Yes," the first of the two men spoke, "as we said on the phone... the present situation in dealing with the invasive species has been becoming all the more troublesome."
"It's where our offices within the state's offices within the game, fish, and parks related departments are rapidly running out of options and ideas," the second spoke, "and where an Animalian might be of use."
The two men then stepped back to let Angie move forward and move toward the baggage claim. She was still a bit perplexed by a lot of the requests that had come from the Florida government. Shew knew that the state had been struggling for years with invasive species, like the Green Iguana and the Burmese Python. Both of which pose different sorts of dangers to the state's ecology. However, the Iguana was herbivorous and largely docile... at least with regard to threats to Humans, which made capturing the lizards that wandered into more Human inhabited areas fairly easy. She'd gotten reports that Anton and Marlysa had accepted a similar deal to come and help collect some of these reptiles in more "built up" areas in coordination with local "wildlife rescue" groups. The lizards would then be check for health and parasitic conditions before either being sent to zoos, the legal pet industry, or back to Central and South America where the Green Iguana was actually a native animal The two Green Iguanas had to hold off their trip to accommodate WSA's schedule so that they wouldn't be conflicting with their roles as teachers.
The Burmese Python, however, was different from the Green Iguana. Unlike the Iguana, which was a medium sized and herbivorous lizard, the Burmese Python was a large and aggressive snake, that was more than capable of killing Humans. In fact, a big part of why the Burmese Python was becoming something of a problem in Florida was the fact that particularly large snakes were killing and eating Alligators. The pythons preying on other animals was even worse, but the fact that the "apex" predator of the Everglades was being eaten by these snakes added to the danger. Particularly as pythons were being found moving northward and out of the Everglades. From what Angie had followed, various Florida law enforcement, or related agencies, did their best to try and catch and remove Pythons, but the government officials were over-stretched and many of the private sector groups generally didn't have the ability to get the appropriate licensing to handle such large snakes in a commercial manner. Now, Animalians were being called in as an alternative.
“And let me guess… because I am a Burmese Python Animalian… you think I’d be best suited to hunting down the mundane animal?” Angie asked, “despite the fact that I don’t live in Florida and never have… have no experience hunting anything, and the fact the species I’ve become is not known for hunting other snakes?”
"It wouldn't be hunting," the first spoke, "we have a sort of season for that with regard to these pythons, but that's in August. If you want to take part in that, you'll have to apply for all the appropriate state hunting licenses and so on. Though, you could also then win prizes for the size of the snake caught."
"Cash prizes," the second added.
Angie nodded as she collected her bags but was still a bit suspicious on what they were specifically wanting from her. She wasn't a lawyer by trade, but she did understand enough that even with the need to remove invasive species, which in Florida included things like the Burmese Python, that they couldn't go off the wall with regard to allowing for the sort of "hunting" that would actually be necessary for it. If it was state run, it would pull these game, fish, and parks officers from handling other parts of their job, which would include making sure people didn't violate other hunting laws or respond to other related cases... such as when people ran into native Florida animals that could be dangerous. If law enforcement and emergency services were busy hunting pythons, they might not be able to respond to a call of a child bitten by a Cottonmouth. And Angie had seen enough references to the "Great Emu War" in Australia to know that "military" action against animals didn't really work.
"So... what would you be expecting from me?" Angie asked, "some of these snakes might be a bit more docile around me... males in particular, since I'm female... and while we're a bit AFTER the Burmese Python's mating season... a male snake might still be curious about me, as they wouldn't fully understand the difference between an Animalian and the mundane equivalent. But that would still require going out into the areas where the snakes are and essentially wrangling them one at a time. About the rest that I could provide would relate to the sorts of things many of your officers should already know."
There was a bit of a silence as the two state officers lead Angie along, which allowed her to continue.
"And since the Burmese Python is pretty solitary in its behavior... as reptiles generally are," Angie continued, "my scent wouldn't attract much attention from the female snakes, which would actually be the ones you'd want to remove more than the males. A population of male snakes will age out. So long as females are present, there will be eggs and a booming population."
There was still a bit of a silence as they continued along, and Angie found that they had an SUV waiting. The first officer went around to the driver's seat while the second held open the door for Angie. In this respect, the two had operated like gentlemen, and Angie was willing to accept putting some of her suspicions and questions aside for that reason. The backseat was one solid seat that went across the vehicle. It wasn't fixed up for Animalians, or at least for Animalians like her, but the fact that the seat went across the backseat was helpful. She slid across the seat, noting the tickling sensation of the soft felt against her belly scales. She made it to where her head and shoulders were behind the driver's seat. She managed to wrestle the seat buckle down and under tail. It left things a little uncomfortable, but it was the only way that she could get the belt in front of her chest and torso. Once buckled in, she set her bags on the floor in front of her and coiled the rest of her tail as best she could so that it fit behind the front passenger seat. It was only then that the second officer shut the door and then climbed into the front passenger seat.
"And our hunting program for the Burmese Python is indiscriminate in the hopes that enough hunters can put a dent in their population," the second officer spoke, "male or female... there really isn't a restriction there. The hope being that enough pythons... and with the cash prizes based on sizes assuring that the larger snakes are the ones killed that local predators may be in a better position... the adult Alligators and what Florida Panthers there are."
"Panthers?" Angie wondered.
"Cougars, Puma, or Mountain Lion," the second officer answered, "though... as said, that's all a bit of a hope, and the hunting season for this isn't until August."
"But there are other ways in which you could be of help," the first spoke, "some of our plan is that you will also get some time with districts near the Everglades which are at the heart of the python's invasion. Some of their patrols do end up removing snakes that get into human areas or if they just so happen to come across one while on patrol. The hope is that we'll be able to observe the mundane snake's behavior around you. Will they be calmer or easier to handle... Will they make it easier for you to handle them, in a way that we really can't."
"And where would they go after this?" Angie wondered.
"Some might go to a zoo or research center," the first answered, "most others would probably be destroyed... as they are an invasive species and one that is causing some ecological chaos."
"If you're just looking to kill them... why not have some of your officers convert and either become Animalians that would be able to see the snakes as food," Angie commented, "like a large Crocodilian... or something like the King Cobra, which actually eats other snakes, including either small or immature pythons?"
"Some of that was an idea," the first officer spoke, "since the American Alligator can reach fairly big sizes, with the largest reported specimens being close to 20 feet long and of comparable weight to a Nile Crocodile. Though, many of these reports come from the 1800s and weren't fully verified. Still, an Alligator Animalian would still be pretty strong and capable of handling these snakes. However, we made cost estimates on what would be needed to then accommodate a large number of Animalians, and with all the other things that we have to handle... that'd be too costly."
"Not to mention that many agencies occasionally get calls to deal with things that don't relate to predators... or things that wouldn't respond well to an Alligator," the second corrected, "and why some of the hands on help you could help us with might be something of a hands on thing... see if the actual animal would respond differently to you based on how you act or what it senses."
"Most of it will likely be my scent," Angie warned, "and at least thinking that I'm another python, which technically would be correct. But because the Burmese Python is largely solitary... a female might see me as a rival for food or territory, and while a male might see me as potential mate, most of that would be more likely in early spring, which we're now past. I don't think there is anything that I could do physically that your officers could duplicate that would make it easier for the snake."
"It still couldn't hurt to test and at least allow our officers to see," the first spoke as they began driving. And it was a quiet drive, though, Angie also noted that they didn't go straight to the governmental offices that the game, fish, and parks department for the state of Florida, but towards the hotel that Angie had booked before her flight.
"Perhaps," Angie said slowly, "though... as I said, much of what I could do would still only be a one at a time thing that wouldn't be repeatable without me there."
"We have another idea that might help... and something that wouldn't necessarily require your continued presence for all the actions taken to capture these snakes," the second officer said weakly, "but it could be a bit embarrassing and something we wanted to save for when we get to the main office... so that way we're not coming off as perverts or something like that."
While mundane snakes had no eyelids, Snake Animalians DID have eyelids, and that was obviously when Angie blinked and blinked hard. That had to be the thing that these Florida government officers that handled wildlife management had avoiding.
"I didn't become an Animalian to be a stripper," Angie warned.
"It isn't quite stripping," the first said slowly, "more to generate something that would be attractive to other pythons or at least arouse some curiosity on their part. For our winters here in Florida are generally warm enough that snakes don't need to hibernate... or at least not in the way that they do in states like Nevada that actually have regular winters with colder weather. And the Burmese Python comes from a similar region, which means IT doesn't hibernate. Thus, there isn't going to be the sort of big communal pits where these snakes congregate. Thus, when their breeding season does come in the early spring, and males and females look for each other, there has to be some way that they do so and given that mundane snakes generally have pretty poor vision, scent would be the bigger thing. A male slides a long, picks up a female's scent with either his nose or his tongue and then follows that scent."
"So... I'm to just rub my tail on things and hope it attracts attention later?" Angie asked.
"Our thought was more like getting samples of certain... sexual fluids that we could then bottle and use as an aerosol in the future," the second said slowly, and noticeably looking down, "it could help our officers in the spring to lure out males as it would provide something the snakes could smell and look to investigate... and would fit with cases where our officers are engaged in the predator control measures. Nothing was intended to be something where anyone would be watching... and we were also instructed that if you had any other ideas to use, to take them into consideration."