The Problem Is Not New, As Pythons Have Run
— slithered — rampant in the Everglades since the 1960s, as the exotic pets escaped or were released into the wild. Hurricane Andrew destroyed a python breeding facility in 1992, further accelerating the python problem.
Catching pythons is not easy, said Tom Rahill, 62, an IT administrator by day and an accomplished python removal agent by night. He has captured more than 700 pythons since he started keeping track in 2008, when he began working as a volunteer. For 10 years, he has brought veterans on python hunts through his organization, Swamp Apes.
Rahill describes wrangling with full-grown Burmese pythons, which can reach 17 feet long, as "a fight for life." Rahill never kills his prey, but brings each snake in alive. The key, he said, is to control the python's head.
There are two seasons for python hunting, Rahill said. He goes cruising at night from May through November during the "wet season" with his car's bright lights on, scanning for snakes in the undergrowth. In the dry season, for the rest of the year, he ventures out after several cold nights when the snakes like to emerge to bask, he said.
A python's first instinct is to stay still or creep away, but when that doesn't work the snake will hiss, coil, lunge, bite, defecate, and even "throw elbows" upon contact as Rahill puts it, by trying to constrict the hunter's limbs. But a python has only one lung and it has to expand and contract its body to power that lung. The human has the biological advantage.
The problem is sometimes a big python will get a stubborn grip on a tree. That's when Rahill brings out his "beast belt," an invention he pioneered to handle these situations. He wraps the canvas belt around the python near its lungs and tightens the belt, distracting the snake, which feels it is being bitten there and will loosen up, Rahill explained.
Even then, the snake won't go quietly — pythons have four rows of razor sharp back curving teeth that Rahill has felt sink into his flesh on numerous occasions.
"I think I still have python teeth in my leg," he said, referring to a recent encounter with a 17-footetr
By freeing South Florida from pythons, hunters are protecting the rest of the ecosystem.
"The small mammal population in and around Everglades National Park has been decimated," Feeney said. In parts of the Everglades there has been more than a 90 percent decrease in small mammal populations: Raccoons, possums, marsh rabbits and white-tailed deer have all been casualties to the appetite of the python. Birds and gators have not been spared either.
New technologies and provisions have been implemented to bolster the campaign against pythons. Detection dogs have been brought in to sniff them. Contractors can now blast away with shotguns in Everglades National Park. And environmental DNA tests on water and soil are used to determine the presence of pythons in the ecosystem, Feeney said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration suspended the Invasive Species Advisory Committee that had coordinated efforts to get rid of pythons and other problematic species. The Tampa Bay Times editorial board condemned the decision to disband the committee, which only saved the federal government $30,000.
Even so, Florida's statewide campaign against pythons remains strong. To date, Feeney estimates the python elimination program has removed more than 2,600 pythons since it began in March of 2017 which, he admits, is "a drop in the barrel." But many of the pythons were pregnant, with the potential to give birth to up to 100 eggs at a time.
In Iran, prospective python hunter Mohammad Asghari said he would kill for the job — despite loving snakes. He grew up watching documentaries about Florida wildlife and said he is willing to do what is needed to protect the environment from an invasive species. Waiting to hear back on his application, Asghari said he would have no problem relocating with his wife and two daughters to take the job.
- The problem is not new, as pythons have run
— slithered — rampant in the Everglades since the 1960s, as the exotic pets escaped or were released into the wild. Hurricane Andrew destroyed a python breeding facility in 1992, further accelerating the python problem.
Catching pythons is not easy, said Tom Rahill, 62, an IT administrator by day and an accomplished python removal agent by night. He has captured more than 700 pythons since he started keeping track in 2008, when he began working as a volunteer. For 10 years, he has brought veterans on python hunts through his organization, Swamp Apes.
Rahill describes wrangling with full-grown Burmese pythons, which can reach 17 feet long, as "a fight for life." Rahill never kills his prey, but brings each snake in alive. The key, he said, is to control the python's head.
There are two seasons for python hunting, Rahill said. He goes cruising at night from May through November during the "wet season" with his car's bright lights on, scanning for snakes in the undergrowth. In the dry season, for the rest of the year, he ventures out after several cold nights when the snakes like to emerge to bask, he said.
A python's first instinct is to stay still or creep away, but when that doesn't work the snake will hiss, coil, lunge, bite, defecate, and even "throw elbows" upon contact as Rahill puts it, by trying to constrict the hunter's limbs. But a python has only one lung and it has to expand and contract its body to power that lung. The human has the biological advantage.
- "You can wear them out," Rahill said. "We can outlast the python."
The problem is sometimes a big python will get a stubborn grip on a tree. That's when Rahill brings out his "beast belt," an invention he pioneered to handle these situations. He wraps the canvas belt around the python near its lungs and tightens the belt, distracting the snake, which feels it is being bitten there and will loosen up, Rahill explained.
- "You are effectively constricting the constrictors," he said.
Even then, the snake won't go quietly — pythons have four rows of razor sharp back curving teeth that Rahill has felt sink into his flesh on numerous occasions.
"I think I still have python teeth in my leg," he said, referring to a recent encounter with a 17-footetr
By freeing South Florida from pythons, hunters are protecting the rest of the ecosystem.
"The small mammal population in and around Everglades National Park has been decimated," Feeney said. In parts of the Everglades there has been more than a 90 percent decrease in small mammal populations: Raccoons, possums, marsh rabbits and white-tailed deer have all been casualties to the appetite of the python. Birds and gators have not been spared either.
New technologies and provisions have been implemented to bolster the campaign against pythons. Detection dogs have been brought in to sniff them. Contractors can now blast away with shotguns in Everglades National Park. And environmental DNA tests on water and soil are used to determine the presence of pythons in the ecosystem, Feeney said.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration suspended the Invasive Species Advisory Committee that had coordinated efforts to get rid of pythons and other problematic species. The Tampa Bay Times editorial board condemned the decision to disband the committee, which only saved the federal government $30,000.
Even so, Florida's statewide campaign against pythons remains strong. To date, Feeney estimates the python elimination program has removed more than 2,600 pythons since it began in March of 2017 which, he admits, is "a drop in the barrel." But many of the pythons were pregnant, with the potential to give birth to up to 100 eggs at a time.
- "Those pythons, had they lived to maturity, would have eaten hundreds of animals," Feeney said. "We have given hundreds of thousands of native animals a fighting chance. We are just getting started."
In Iran, prospective python hunter Mohammad Asghari said he would kill for the job — despite loving snakes. He grew up watching documentaries about Florida wildlife and said he is willing to do what is needed to protect the environment from an invasive species. Waiting to hear back on his application, Asghari said he would have no problem relocating with his wife and two daughters to take the job.
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