Meet the Target
Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, are invasive giants in Florida’s Everglades. Growing over 16 feet long and 100 pounds, they’ve become apex predators—blending in seamlessly while wreaking havoc on native wildlife.
Nighttime python hunts start from the bed of a pickup truck rigged with floodlights, scanning the levees for a flash of patterned scales. When a python is spotted, it’s a full-speed dive into the grass—sometimes ending in a bite. For Anton, every snake caught is a small step in restoring balance to the Everglades.
Snakes After Sunset
A night of python hunting typically starts briskly after sunset. Our hunting vessel of choice is a pickup truck with a raised and welded platform, fully equipped with light-bars bolted to all sides.
Essentially, a mobile watch tower that turns the surrounding darkness into seemingly daylight. We cruise the roads and levees of the Everglades with our lights, looking for the pythons while they’re on the hunt, carefully watching between the trees and blades of sawgrass until we see a target. When a culprit is spotted, the truck comes to an abrupt halt, as we dive off the truck after the snake.
When grabbing the pythons, I typically grab them right behind the head, they become much easier to control, and getting bit is easily avoided. An easy head grab is not always an option; in this scenario, I do get bit from time to time.
Given they are non-venomous, a bite isn’t much to worry about. When we see a python they aren’t always in the wide open. Every python we spot is different, sometimes it’s just a head or tail sticking out, or the occasional few square inches of patterned scales amongst a gap in the leaves. Despite not being native to the Everglades, their camouflage pattern often blends in incredibly with our native foliage.
A good night of python hunting is any night I catch one. In a given year, I typically remove 100 individuals or more. Despite the estimated 100,000-200,000 invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades, they are still a challenge to find as most of the Everglades is submerged in water.
The Future of the Everglades
What’s the Future of Pythons in the Everglades?
Anton - At the end of the day, the Burmese pythons are here because of human actions. They truly are beautiful and impressive creatures. Despite the damage they have done, all they know is to survive the best they can, just like any wild species on this planet. It is up to us to conserve and protect what wildlife and ecosystems we have left, and only we can work to undo the damage we have done. Until it’s gone, it’s never too late. This means being cautious of where our non-native pets end up, doing research on how to stop the spread of already established invasive species, protecting the wildlife that naturally inhabits our land, and preventing repetition in the future. The Everglades isn’t just a swamp, its home to some of the most diverse wildlife and incredible estuaries in the world, which is why many others and I have taken action in the ways that we can.
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