Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Python hunter Edward Mercer searches through the Southern Glades area of the Everglades outside Florida City, Florida. Pictures taken March 24 and 25, 2012 and made available today.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Mercer searches through the vast Southern Glades.

European Pressphoto Agency reports — Meet 39-year-old Edward Mercer, one of a handful of permitted python hunters in South Florida.

Since the 1990s, non-native Burmese pythons, one of the world's largest species of snake, have been flourishing in the Everglades National Park and surrounding areas. Pet owners have been known to release the snakes into the wild, where they quickly revert to their natural state.

Crocodiles thrive as neighbors of Florida nuclear plant

Burmese pythons are voracious feeders and prey on the native wildlife of the Everglades, including American alligators, raccoons, rabbits, bobcats and many different birds. The National Park Service is concerned about the impact of the pythons on the delicate ecosystem of the area.

Mercer doesn't get paid for hunting the snakes, but says he enjoys the rush of finding and capturing the elusive, semi-aquatic pythons. To date, he has caught 26 Burmese pythons, the largest of which was 12 feet long and weighed in at 43 pounds.  When he finds one, he turns it over to the state or federal wildlife authorities, depending on where it was found.

According to the Park Service, more than 1,800 Burmese pythons have been removed from the Everglades since 2002.

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Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Mercer sets up an automated camera for homeowner Marty Ward in West Palm Beach. He searches for pythons in residential areas when contacted by concerned homeowners.

Erik S. Lesser / EPA

Mercer handles one of his pet Burmese pythons at his home in Tamarac. He owns seven snakes, including two pythons. Mercer was afraid of snakes until someone gave him one.

J Pat Carter / AP

A trainer uses an iPad as she works with an orangutan at Jungle Island in Miami. The devices are too fragile to actually hand over to the apes - the trainers must hold them.

J Pat Carter / AP

Linda Jacobs says orangutans are extremely intelligent but limited by their physical inability to talk.

The Associated Press reports — The 8-year-old twins love their iPad. They draw, play games and expand their vocabulary. Their family's teenagers like the hand-held computer tablets, too, but the clan's elders show no interest.

The orangutans at Miami's Jungle Island apparently are just like people when it comes to technology. The park is one of several zoos experimenting with computers and apes, letting its six orangutans use an iPad to communicate and as part of a mental stimulus program. Linda Jacobs, who oversees the program, hopes the devices will eventually help bridge the gap between humans and the endangered apes.

"Our young ones pick up on it. They understand it. It's like, 'Oh, I get this,'" Jacobs said. "Our two older ones, they just are not interested. I think they just figure, 'I've gotten along just fine in this world without this communication-skill here and the iPad, and I don't need a computer.'"

Video: Baby orangutan steps out in Madrid

It's important to note that training the orangutans isn't done to entertain Jungle Island workers or guests. Because the animals are so intelligent, Jacobs said their minds must be kept active to prevent them from getting bored or depressed. The challenge is making the enrichment activities enjoyable.

"They need a lot of stimulation," Jacobs said. "Training isn't mandatory, but they love it." Read the full story.

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J Pat Carter / AP

The software was originally designed for humans with autism and the screen displays pictures of various objects. A trainer then names one of the objects, and the ape presses the corresponding button.

J Pat Carter / AP

While Jenna Hogg, pictured, and other trainers have developed strong relationships with the orangutans, the iPad and other touchscreen computers offer an opportunity for them to communicate with people not trained in their sign language. Pictures taken in February and April 2012 but made available today.

Slideshow: Animal Tracks: April 25 - May 2

Esteban Cobo / EPA

From a dog in a dress to a momma gorilla holding her baby, get your cuteness fix with irresistible photos of creatures great and small.

Launch slideshow

Nick Ut / AP

A dolphin swims in wetlands at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, Calif., Monday, Aug. 30, 2012.

Nick Ut / AP

Spectators watch as a dolphin, dorsal fin visible at lower right, swims in wetlands at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, Calif., Monday, Aug. 30, 2012.

Msnbc.com reports: A lone dolphin that has spent the past five days swimming in the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Southern California may be the victim of bullying, NBCLosAngeles.com reported. The dolphin may have been prevented from leaving the Huntington Beach nature preserve by other dolphins, Peter Wallerstein, director of Marine Animal Rescue told the Register. This would be a rare occurrence, as dolphins are social creatures that typically travel in a pod.

“He was scared, he was intimidated, he was bullied,” Wallerstein told the Los Angeles Times. Dolphins "can be very aggressive toward each other. They’re not the sweet, loving, gentle animals portrayed by the movies and the cartoons. They do have a dark side.”

• More pictures in an earlier Photoblog post about this dolphin.

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courtesy DigitalGlobe

An emperor penguin colony near Halley Bay in Antarctica in an undated satellite image.

Deborah Zabarenko / Reuters, file

Counting emperor penguins in their icy Antarctic habitat was not easy until researchers used new technology to map the birds from space.

Reuters reports — Using satellite mapping with resolution high enough to distinguish ice shadows from penguin poo, an international team has carried out what they say is an unprecedented penguin census from the heavens over the past three years.

The good news was that the team found the Antarctic emperor penguin population numbered about 595,000, nearly double previous estimates.

But the bad news was that some colonies have disappeared altogether due to changing weather patterns and the long-term future of the birds is far from assured. Read the full story.

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Martin Passingham / Reuters

Emperor penguins are seen in Dumont d'Urville, Antarctica, on April 10, 2012.

Aaron Tam / AFP - Getty Images

The carcass of the world's most well-preserved baby mammoth, named Lyuba, is displayed in Hong Kong on April 10, 2012.

A perfectly preserved baby mammoth buried for 42,000 years under snow and ice has embarked on a tour across Asia.

Lyuba, whose carcass was discovered by a reindeer herder in Russia's Yamal Peninsula in 2007, is about to go on display at IFC Mall in Hong Kong and will later travel to China, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan. She has previously toured North America.

Last week, another juvenile mammoth, nicknamed Yuka, was found entombed in Siberian ice. According to Discovery News, Yuka's body shows signs of having been cut open by ancient people. 

Tyrone Siu / Reuters

Lyuba, whose carcass is 42,000 years old, was found by a reindeer herder in the Yamal Peninsula in Russia in 2007.

Bullit Marquez / AP

A pit bull, one of more than 200 rescued over the weekend, sits chained inside a steel drum, April 3, 2012 in San Pablo city, Philippines.

Bullit Marquez / AP

Police officers pet one of the rescued pit bulls, April 3, 2012 at a coffee farm lot in San Pablo city, Laguna province, south of Manila, Philippines following their rescue.

Bullit Marquez / AP

A volunteer from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) pets a pit bull, one of more than 200 rescued from at a coffee farm lot in San Pablo city, Philippines, April 3, 2012.

Bullit Marquez / AP

A volunteer from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) emerges from a mobile veterinary clinic with a dead pit bull after being euthanized, April 3, 2012 at a coffee farm lot in San Pablo city, Laguna province, south of Manila, Philippines. Dozens of pit bulls, rescued from a dogfighting ring were euthanized by the animal welfare activists who said there are no facilities to rehabilitate them and prevent them from again being used in underground arenas.

AP reports: Veterinarians and animal welfare workers Tuesday euthanized at least nine pit bulls rescued from a dogfighting ring in the Philippines because there are no facilities to rehabilitate them and prevent them from again being used in underground arenas.

The plan is to put down dozens of the roughly 300 dogs rescued in separate raids late Friday in Laguna province south of Manlia, said Anna Cabrera of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society. Seventeen had been put to sleep a day after the raids.

The health of the living dogs and the progress of rehabilitating them will determine how many of them ultimately survive.

Police arrested eight South Koreans suspected of running an illegal online gambling operations in which players outside the Philippines bet on dogs fighting at a clandestine compound. Full story.

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Note: This post includes a graphic image of a dead elephant.

AFP - Getty Images

Rangers train a dog at Virunga Park. The Democratic Republic of Congo's famed Virunga National Park has deployed bloodhounds to track down elephant poachers, a park official said Monday."The first operation of the specially-trained bloodhounds was launched after a succession of elephant-poaching incidents," LuAnne Cadd, the park's public relations officer, told AFP.

AFP - Getty Images

A picture released by Virunga National Park shows Marlene Zahner and Marcel Maierhofer posing with rangers and their six dogs at Virunga Park.

Msnbc.com's Miguel Llanos reports that the bloodhounds were able to track poachers despite heavy animal traffic at the poaching site: 

Rangers decided to use the elephant carcass to track the poachers "but the tracks were blended in with the passage of every hyena and every lion in the neighbourhood," Merode wrote in the blog. "On top of that, Dodi and Lily (the two dogs) took one look at the carcass and bolted. It’s not surprising as the carcass looked terrifying and had a horrific stench."

A ranger "spent a good half hour talking to Dodi and reassuring her," he added. "He was able to convince her, and she came in.  He used a bone as the scent item, and after twenty minutes searching for a trail, they took off."

Read more...

AFP - Getty Images

A picture released by Virunga National Park shows rangers and their dog looking at the large bloated carcass of an adult elephant laying in the bushes by a river in the Ishasha Valley. The Park said "it was clearly an ivory poaching incident, the tusks had been hacked out of the elephant's face." The UN watchdog into the illegal wildlife trade last week voiced "grave concern" at a spike in African elephant poaching after nearly 450 of the animals were killed in Cameroon. "This spike in elephant poaching is of grave concern not only to Cameroon, a member state to CITES, but to all 38 range states of the African elephant," John Scanlon, the head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), said. The UN agency said it will contact the ministers responsible for forests and wildlife from Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan to offer anti-poaching support.

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Lynne Sladky / AP

Jim Duquesnel holds an iguana he caught in a trap at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys on Aug. 31, 2011.

The Associated Press reports from BAHIA HONDA KEY, Fla. — For more than a year, Bahia Honda State Park biologist Jim Duquesnel traversed the nature sanctuary with two hopes. He wanted to see a Miami blue butterfly and rid the Florida Keys outpost of as many iguanas as he could.

The reason: The Central American invader may be driving the Miami blue into extinction by eating the leaves where it lays its eggs — a bit of butterfly caviar in every bite.

Paula Cannon / AP

In this undated photo, a Miami blue butterfly is shown at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last August issued an emergency listing of the Miami blue as an endangered species.

No confirmed Miami blues have been seen on Bahia Honda since July 2010, and with each passing day it becomes less likely any exist there.

Still, Duquesnel has tried to keep hope alive — and eradicate the iguana from his 600-acre park in the Middle Keys.

Perhaps, he says, a half dozen Miami blues survive on some corner of the island, waiting for the right weather to emerge. Read more about his quest to protect them.

• Previously on PhotoBlog: Endangered crocodiles thrive as neighbors of Florida nuclear plant

Lynne Sladky / AP

Jim Duquesnel sets out pieces of fruit to attract iguanas on Aug. 9, 2011. The large, vegetarian lizards, probably the descendants of pets released by their owners when they grew too big or burdensome, have developed a taste for the nickerbean leaves where Miami blues laid their eggs.

Lynne Sladky / AP

Jim Duquesnel and volunteer Larry Benvenuti measure an iguana that was caught in a trap. When Duquesnel was hired in November 2010, he saw 40 or 50 adult iguanas a day in the park. Now he sees just a couple big ones a day, and they're harder to catch because they've adapted to his hunting and trapping.