Animals
Ronald Bailey | From the January 2024 issue
Python Cowboy Mike Kimmel and Python Huntress Amy Siewe are just two of the legendary characters trying to keep the rising population of Burmese pythons in check in Florida's Everglades. Both were once snake killers for hire for the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) but now work as professional snake hunting guides.
"I was a state contractor for four years," says Siewe. "I couldn't make enough money to pay my bills. So I decided to become a full-time python hunting guide in January." She averages three hunts per week.
Siewe's biggest catch so far was a 17-foot-3-inch monster that she killed in July 2021. Two years later, Kimmel slew a 16-foot-long female and was surprised to find over 60 eggs inside her. Of the 7,330 pythons killed by SFWMD contractors since March 2017, only 651 (9 percent) have been 10 feet or longer. (In July, 22-year-old amateur python hunter Jake Waleri captured a world record 19-foot Burmese python at Big Cypress National Preserve.)
The cadre of around 100 contracted snake hunters earn between $13 and $18 hourly for up to 10 hours a day, plus an incentive payment of $50 for each python measuring up to 4 feet and another $25 for each foot measured above 4 feet. Hunters also get paid $200 for each verified active python nest they remove.
Both Kimmel and Siewe not only earn cash as python hunt guides but also from selling items—Apple Watch bands, bi-fold wallets—made of python leather. "The thing I like as a guide is that I get to take people out and teach them about the problems that the pythons are causing," says Siewe. "They get a chance to help save Florida's ecosystems. It's a really cool thing that I get to do." Private guides like Siewe are clearly an important supplement to state-contracted hunting.
At the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the Python Action Team Removing Invasive Constrictors (PATRIC) program pays the same fees to its own contracted snake hunters. Since both programs were established in 2017, over 18,000 pythons have been caught and killed; contracted snake........