Florida python hunters wrestle invasive snakes

While Thomas Aycock on average takes eight hours to find a snake but many are prowling day and night in Everglades to capture the invasive Burmese pythons during the 2020 Python Challenge Python Bowl in Florida

Thomas Aycock is one among many hunters who are snooping the wetlands Everglades in Florida during the 10-day Python Bowl which ends on Monday and will bring fortune of $2,000 to the one who captures the longest and heaviest Burmese python. 

Certainly one of the most terrifying moment it must have been when a 13-foot Burmese python squeezed Aycock's arm and leg in its coils.

Though an unsuccessful effort was made by Aycock, the feeling of the 54-year-old Army National Guard major was expressed when he said, "I knew what it was doing, it was going for my throat. I said to myself, It can't go down like this."

This experience was frightening but he takes it to lengths to search the thick brush and sawgrass for more snakes.

In order to protect the local wildlife, the state encourages hunters to capture or kill the giant, invasive south Asian snakes who are decimating the native wildlife of the wetlands. 

Hunters are creeping across the croners of Everglades to get a glimpse of the shine of brown and black scales.

First found in the Everglades around the year 2000, the Burmese pythons were introduced by pet owners and possibly a snake research facility.

With a body length of more than 18 feet (5.5m) and weigh more than 45 kilograms, the Behemoths have turned the ecosystem upside down. 

In a recent study, massive snakes have wiped out major proportions of raccoons, opossums, and bobcats and ate many alligators. 

 

"I saw an opossum last night out on the levee and it was the first small animal I've seen in probably five or six months," Aycock said.