Florida python hunters remove invasive snakes that kill native species

• Invasive Burmese pythons have decimated native species in Florida.
• The state pays 100 contractors to hunt the secretive and hard-to-find pythons.
• “It’s not their fault they’re here, but they have to go,” said one python hunter.

Amy Siwe has always loved snakes. When she was a child, her father would take her to the creek and try to catch reptiles, amphibians—all kinds of small critters.

But in the year In early 2019, she tagged along on a different kind of hunt. Siewe heard that hunters in South Florida were being paid to catch giant Burmese pythons, so she flew from her home in Indiana — where she ran a successful real estate business — to join them and watch the hunt herself.

“We caught a python and I was hooked,” Siwe told Insider. I was like, “This is what I have to do. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. But this is it.”

She moved back to Indiana and within two months she quit everything, closed her job and moved to Florida to hunt pythons.

The invasive pythons are eating away at the natives.

Siewe is one of 100 licensed hunters contracted in Florida to catch and kill invasive reptiles that wreak havoc on ecosystems and destroy native species.

“They’re eating our wildlife,” Mike Kirkland, an invasive species biologist who manages the South Florida Water Management District’s python removal program, told Insider. “Also, natives compete for food.”

Everglades National Park and other areas in South Florida have seen a 90 to 95 percent decline in native species, Kirkland explained.

Pythons, the largest of all snakes, can grow up to 20 feet long and feed on animals such as white-tailed deer. In the year A study published in 2012 linked snakes to severe declines in several native species. Researchers found that since 1997, the number of raccoons, opossums, and bobcats has declined by 99.3, 98.9, and 87.5%, respectively. Other species such as the marsh rabbit, cottontail rabbit, and fox are “virtually extinct.”

The Everglades were teeming with this type of wildlife. “Now, you’re challenged to find a mammal when you go there,” Kirkland said.

They were first found in the wild in Florida. They are more likely to end up in the wild in Florida as a result of the animal trade. The capture, breeding and sale of the snakes is allowed under certain conditions until wildlife authorities impose a complete ban in 2021. But pet owners can let the snakes get loose when they get too big. There are also unconfirmed reports of pythons escaping from breeding facilities destroyed by storms.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Both directly and indirectly released pythons thrive in the state due to a lack of predators and a warm climate similar to their native Southeast Asia.

However, officials don’t have an accurate idea of ​​how many snakes exist in the state because they tend to live in relatively inaccessible areas like the Everglades wetlands and can be difficult to spot.

“They’re very mysterious animals. It’s very well sculpted,” Kirkland said. “You can be right on Python and it blends in well with the environment. If you don’t know what you want, there’s a good chance it’s gone.”

By some estimates there could be as many as 150,000 pythons in Florida, but Kirkland said it’s hard to even figure a ballpark figure, saying, “The reality is we don’t know.”

Paid for hunting – in the name of protection

Wildlife officials are working on projects to estimate the python population, but the most successful effort to solve the problem is python hunters, Kirkland.

In the year In 2017, the South Florida Water Management District began a python removal program and controls 50 hunters, including Siwe. Along with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s sister program, the state has 100 paid contractors.

SFWMD hunters are paid $10 to $15 an hour, depending on location, for up to 10 hours a day. They are also paid $50 for each python for the first 4 feet. Any python longer than that will net the hunter $25 for each additional foot.

The state uses an app that allows wildlife officials to track poachers in real time. Kirkland said he uses his phone to track the location of hunters as they move around the Everglades, allowing him to coordinate the project’s location and respond if anyone runs into trouble. The system also allows for electronic data collection and analysis.

“I’ll probably stay up all night,” said Kirkland, who has largely consumed the program since its inception five years ago. “I’m out in the fields with my hunters or I’m at home watching them.”

Together, the programs have removed nearly 10,000 Burmese pythons from Florida ecosystems.

Once a year, the state even hosts a python challenge, where hunters from all over the US compete to catch the most pythons and win a $10,000 prize. Primarily an outreach event, the challenge seeks to raise awareness of the Florida python problem and garner support for conservation efforts.

Despite the challenges, Kirkland said he’s confident that between de-culling programs and other management strategies, the state’s python population will continue to decline and native species will increase.

The easiest way to catch a python? with your hands

Meanwhile, the state relies on contractors like Siewe, whose hunting of pythons is a constant trial and error. Pythons are well hidden, often out of reach, and spend most of their time motionless.

She said she goes out five to six nights a week and usually has Python on three to four nights. The hunters have to be patient and wait for the pythons to show themselves.

“If we start going through the swamp or the forest or wherever, you’ll never find them,” Siwe said.

Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

She goes out at night, when the pythons are active, alone, with another hunter, or with an assistant approved by the government. They are driving slowly down the street of lights, looking for pythons. Sometimes you see one on the side of the road, or in shallow water, or crossing the road.

Once it appears – and someone shouts “Python!” – They stop the vehicle, get out and approach. Instead of catching the snakes, they do not kill the snakes on the spot, preferably holding the blade behind the head to avoid the bite.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the easiest way to catch these pythons,” said Siwe, who said she was often smaller. Although painful, the snakes are not poisonous.

She says that as top predators, pythons don’t get angry and instead stay in large numbers.

“And then you catch them and of course they’re worried,” she said. “But for the most part, you can walk up to them.” Once removed from the area, the snakes are killed. Siwe says she will bring them home to die.

Siewe loves what she does but says it is “sad” the snakes were killed. As a result, she made it her mission to use the snake as much as possible. She makes and sells snakeskin products — like key chains and Apple Watch bands — only from invasive pythons.

Almost all python hunters love snakes, Ciewe says, which makes them good at what they do: “We’re good because we’re not afraid, we know a lot about them, and we want to learn more.” And more about them. The most difficult thing is that we have to kill.

“For every python we remove from the Everglades, we are saving the lives of hundreds of our native species,” she said. “It’s not the pythons fault they’re here, but they have to go.”

Have a news tip? Find this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.