Should I now learn to make snakeskin leather?

I will discuss one of the problems that is an indicator of the future changes that may happen at my farm as a result of global warming. I am now host to the wildlife that has decided to move nearer to the urban community that has invaded my quiet haven in the town of Silang.

At my farm, wildlife are now turning up in the wrong places. This may seem trivial to most people who will claim it is a normal thing to find snakes in the gardens in the tropics. I think it is not abnormal to find snakes, but not dozens of 15 foot pythons in the area where I have my farm.

For the first time, the annual deluge has brought me some very large pythons that are showing up very hungry! These larger pythons are showing up on my farm more and more frequently, and all I can think about is, whether or not this is a normal or strange effect of the 2o years of subdivision development upland?

The pythons are attracted by my free range chickens, they have been hunting and foraging nearer and nearer to our area, and now finally have invaded my farm. These large pythons come over during the rainy season,carried by the floodwater from the higher elevation that was once full of coconut and fruit orchards. In the past, it was a normal thing that we lose a few chickens, but mainly the younger ones that don't come in at night. We only feed our free range chickens in the late afternoon, and bring them inside the barn area where they safely nest at night.

These large serpents coming in have changed everything. We are now catching them coming in through drains, and through the roofs, and killing more than 5 chickens at a time. They can get part of their bodies into the shed by breaking down portions of the screen with their heads, then killing the chickens by crushing them in their powerful embrace, but they cannot swallow and leave with their bellies full. In fact, one very large python got into the chicken coop, swallowed three chickens then regugurated them back because it could not squeeze back through the opening it made before the sun came out for a new day. There was the large python lying with dead chickens beside it, and it was cowering in a corner, a massive coiled serpent. How does one wrangle with a massive male python? We are sorry to say, it was necessary to kill it, than for our farm hands to lose a limb and or their lives in trying to catch them.

This is what a dead chicken crushed by a python looks like. This chicken belonged to another farmer. I just pitied the chicken to see it like that. The chicken in this picture, had every bone crushed by a 10 foot python.

My chickens are not tied, and they can run if they see a snake, but a sleeping hen has no chance to get away from a big python that has fish-hook type teeth and bone crushing force to squeeze it to death.

A few female pythons we caught on our farm were smaller, about 9-11 feet in length. I personally found a big one that took refuge under the overgrown plants near my horse stable. The snake couldn't hide for very long since the color of the one we caught was a beautiful yellow and ochre color.

When we roam around our property, we now have to check for snakes before they find us. I am careful because some snakes that may be poisonous try to catch geckos and can wander their way into our house.

Boa constrictors give birth to live young, and will find a spot that is away from people, whereas pythons lay eggs in nests of mud and grass, and tend to be very bold about moving into property that has a ready food supply.

Our poultry farm is near the river. Boas prefer to stay in trees waiting to lurk around sleeping birds at night, or sleepy bats during the day. Pythons like to make their way up sewage pipes and big drains to get into an underground tunnel where they will sleep for weeks until hunger wakes them up. Pythons will then start to hunt by using their heat pits to locate prey. They are very effective during the darker days of the rainy season and it is often when they are sighted slithering away with a big belly, and desperate to get back into their tunnels and holes after feeding.

This large python was killed by a security guard in another poultry farm in Batangas. The guard shot in the head after it was caught inside the barn after eating 4 chickens. The python regurgurated the chickens and tried to flee but there would be no way to catch a 15 foot python without being seriously injured.

Pythons also feed on anything they can catch. Their favorite food are birds and bats, and when orchards are cut, a lot of these pythons that roost in trees or caves eating bats, and birds will be very hungry and start looking for prey in poultry farms, or homes where there may be small mammals like rats.

I used to catch and release the pythons far in the neighboring area of Indang, or Amadeo, but I realize these pythons can lay as much as 80 eggs that will populate the countryside at an alarming rate if these are not managed somehow. Pythons usually forage during the early morning or late afternoon, or on moonlit nights. They usually eat birds, rats, small mammals, lizards and of course the occassional feral chicken, dog or cat.

We have caught at least a dozen large pythons this year. We used to rarely catch one over 4 feet, but now these serpents are showing up looking like they are big enough to eat an entire goat.

I wonder if I should shift from raising free range chicken to raising free range pythons for leather?

The few we caught were given over to the natives to eat. They value the meat as tasting like chicken !! well, of course...they ate my chickens! Now they are eaten...karma..

Ducks can communicate, I just needed to pay more attention!

I got a call from a nervous farm hand who told me that he had seen a head of a large python lurking from our Lotus Pond at the farm. I left immediately, and my driver, Liberto was peeding down the highway to get to the farm before the snake would be caught. I wasn't necessary alone on a Sunday morning, heading for the upland country of Tagaytay. This was happening during the year, where prices of oil hit $100 a barrel. This crisis caused a downward trend in the economics of the country. There are less people on the road joyriding! Only the more serious commuters take to the highway at 8:00Am Philippine time.

I reached my small organic farm located in a glen beside the Biluso River. The rainy season has just ended, and the lots around mine have grown wild and bamboo thickets have reached my wall. Below this bamboo thicket is my Lotus pond where I keep my ducks and geese in a safe enclave with enough water for them to play and wander about.

This morning, the ducks were looking very happy frolicking back in the water they dreaded to enter a few weeks before.

I now know the "duck language" is expressed in their behavior. They form tight groups, and their heads all turn at once, their body language is pronounced in a fear that I thought was because I was coming into their space. They huddle together, all taking steps in formation as if they were one large duck coming towards me and away from the pond. I noticed it, but didn't think much of how ducks communicate, but now I understand they had been telling me and everyone that there was a snake growing larger and larger in their area.

I once found that the most cruel predator in the Philippines, is the large, water- monitor lizard. These giants have the habit of ripping the belly of their pray. They will leave their pray lying on the ground, their middle sections torn open. The monitors eat the softer parts, internal organs, then leave the rest of their carcass to rot, thus softening the harder tissue for a meal another day. Believing in the natural way of life, I discouraged my farm hands from killing and eating monitors when they caught them. Against good advise, I often ordered to release them back in the river and hope they will not return to my duck and geese pond.

Well, now I am a seasoned farmer, and know that monitors and pythons are not endangered and they must be taught never to come near our farm. I have changed after seeing my lovely geese, ducks and chickens lying silently on the ground, their abdominal cavities empty and ravaged by a savage reptile. I am now for duck rights and geese preservation, which means any reptile or wild animal coming to my farm for free food is going to end up as appetizers for my farm hands.

The 12 foot python managed to drag himself to the storm drain. He swallowed an entire chicken whole. He tried to escape but the large lump in his belly would not pass through the storm drain after he ate his meal. The snake was not able to drag his big belly out of the pond and into the safety of the bushes where he could hide.

This time, the python was discovered on an early morning after swallong whole, a single pullet that prefered to stay out at night.

The ducks were silently sitting far away from the vicinity of the ponds and avoiding the large storm drain at the side of the chicken barn. Their posture signaled to me that they were communicating something sinisetr was lurking in the chicken house. The ducks silence was meant to focus attention on the pond. My farm hands said, they saw the python, lying still, and stiff posing for the bright light shining directly into its eyes. What a dreadful threat waited for these ducks in the pond!

My ducks were telling me somthing. They, along with the chickens are being raised for their eggs, not meat. Now that I recognize that ducks can communicate, I know what the message "SNAKE" is and I did understand why the ducks refused to enter the small pond area and swim. They knew, and they were telling me that for years that damn python was growing and eating their ducklings and our chickens too stupid to realize the predator was harmless when fed, and even content to wait until its hunger pangs drove them to kill again.

I know pythons may be fascinating to some who are into reptiles, but this one is long gone and hopefully there are fewer of its friends who would come by my farm. Crows, chickens, ducks, geese feed on tiny serpents they find in the ground or in the water, but a large python this size could kill a dog and grow to its full length of 15 feet and weigh as much as 400 lbs. Risky to have such a threat around when we have the children of the farm hands, not to mention our dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and geese to protect.