Documentary: Hunting pythons in Florida

Brut America

Giant invasive pythons have taken over the Florida Everglades, but the state is urging people to fight back.   For Brut, filmmaker Jessey Dearing goes python hunting with Amy Siewe to stop the pythons from destroying their native wildlife.

Transcript

00:00It gets intimidating with those big ones.

00:11Come on.

00:13Grab them, grab them.

00:15Okay, sit, sit, sit, sit.

00:17You cannot hesitate.

00:18If you hesitate, forget about it.

00:20You'll lose.

00:21Oh, look, you got a beast.

00:25Yeah, I know.

00:26Yeah, Amy.

00:27It is a battle.

00:29It is not easy to catch these.

00:30Sometimes they'll fight you.

00:32I can't overpower a 17-foot python,

00:35so I have to be smarter than the snake.

00:38Invasive Burmese pythons that can get as long as 18 feet

00:42have taken over the Florida Everglades.

00:44With no natural predators,

00:45the pythons are decimating local wildlife,

00:48eating everything from rabbits and birds

00:50to bobcats and even deer.

00:52For Brute, I'm meeting up with Amy Seewee,

00:54who gave up her career as a real estate agent

00:56three years ago to come to Florida and hunt pythons.

01:00Yeah, baby.

01:01He was in there, too.

01:02Oh, damn, I thought he was gone.

01:04That's right.

01:19Okay.

01:22I think we're ready.

01:27Hi, this is Amy Seewee

01:29checking in for a python survey in Big Cypress.

01:40Thanks. Bye.

01:45We are in the western Everglades,

01:47and it's one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world.

01:50It is truly amazing.

01:52It is full of life.

01:54Pythons are not easy to find,

01:56and, you know, people come here thinking,

01:59you know, oh, the Everglades, it's huge, it's amazing,

02:02there's going to be pythons everywhere,

02:04I'm just going to start tromping through the swamp,

02:06and I'm going to find pythons,

02:08and that's what I thought,

02:10and it is not like that at all.

02:12Not at all.

02:13Even though the pythons are doing incredible damage,

02:16because there are so many of them,

02:18they are so difficult to find.

02:20It takes 3 years for a python to reach 10 feet,

02:24and it takes 200 mammals and birds to get it there.

02:28These things live for 25 years.

02:30So, I mean, that's a lot of our native animals.

02:35They'll eat rats, squirrels, birds,

02:38rabbits, raccoons,

02:40billy, bobcats, deer.

02:44We found a python within 10 feet.

02:48We found a python with a doe and two fawns

02:51and are at the same time.

02:53Birds, they eat wading birds,

02:56vultures, they eat everything,

02:58literally everything,

03:00and their numbers are out of control

03:02because they don't have any predators.

03:08Invasive pythons started showing up in the 80s

03:10when pet owners would illegally release them

03:12into the Everglades.

03:14And then, in 1992, the problem was exasperated

03:16when Hurricane Andrew knocked out breeding facilities

03:18freeing hundreds of snakes into the wild.

03:20Now the state has paid python removal contractors

03:23and an annual hunting competition

03:25to raise awareness about the snakes.

03:27But with an estimated 100,000 pythons in the wild,

03:30they can only hope to slow their growth.

03:38I was a real estate broker for the last 13 years in Indiana,

03:41and I learned about the python problem.

03:43I decided to take a three-week vacation

03:45with my fiancé to come down to Florida

03:47to see what it was all about, and we caught a python.

03:49And I was absolutely hooked.

03:51And it was less than two months later.

03:53I just dropped everything in Indiana.

03:55I didn't really know where to hunt them.

03:57I didn't have a job.

03:59I rented a room from a guy from the Internet.

04:02So, on paper, this looked like the dumbest thing

04:05that I could have ever done.

04:07But in my heart, it was the one thing in my whole life

04:09that I knew without a doubt,

04:11this is what I'm supposed to be doing.

04:16I'm meeting Andre up here tonight to hunt this levy

04:20because it's, I mean, it's easier to have two people.

04:23I mean, there's two sides of the levy,

04:25and, you know, I can only cover one.

04:27So I like to hunt this levy with somebody else.

04:30Yeah. There's better places up there.

04:33I've been there.

04:35And I got, like, seven or eight with Ed one time.

04:37But then I went there with Ashley, and I only got one, so...

04:40We are ready whenever you are.

04:42All right, let's do it.

04:49We hunt the pythons on the road at night.

04:53So we basically load up in a truck,

04:55and we are driving down the roads and levies

04:59about five miles an hour

05:01with all of our lights looking for pythons.

05:03And we're looking for them on the sides of the roads.

05:06We're looking for them on the sides of the road.

05:08We're waiting for them to cross the roads.

05:10Wherever we can see them, that's what we're looking for.

05:13And then how late are you out tonight?

05:15I mean, whatever.

05:17What were you thinking, like, 1 a.m.?

05:19No, I mean...

05:21All right, I'm thinking probably 12.30 here.

05:23I mean, depending.

05:25If we're having a good night, then, you know.

05:27Right.

05:30When you're driving all night,

05:32and, you know, you're not finding a python every five minutes,

05:36when you do, I mean, the adrenaline is pumping.

05:39It's so exciting.

05:42Right there.

05:44See him?

05:46Oh, yeah.

05:48Nope, you're not going anywhere.

05:51It's going to be interesting.

06:02Ah, there we go.

06:04Ah, there we go.

06:06There you go, good job.

06:08Woo-hoo!

06:10We got one.

06:12And he is a muskrat.

06:14It's a fat, short one, isn't it?

06:17Yeah.

06:19He's shedding.

06:21Look at that, he's shedding.

06:23It's super dark, too, so you can tell.

06:25Oh, that's why. Yeah, sorry, buddy.

06:27Yeah.

06:29Man, I wish I could help you shed,

06:31because I know it's really uncomfortable.

06:33Sure.

06:35Take a picture of you, buddy.

06:40His eyeballs are moving around.

06:42Hi.

06:44Oh, my God, I spotted him.

06:46He was so dark, it was really hard to spot.

06:49A study in 2012 found that invasive pythons

06:51were likely responsible for the massive decline in population of local wildlife,

06:55including rabbits, foxes, and bobcats.

06:58The state now encourages the killing of these pythons

07:00by both the public and paid contractors,

07:02because they see it as the best way to save their native animals.

07:05We could use my box, I guess.

07:08Hey, thanks.

07:10If you would give me a bag for this,

07:13I would, like, give you one of mine.

07:16Jeez, I think I am.

07:18Don't forget your ghetto go-pro.

07:20I'll grab the snake from behind with the pillowcase on,

07:26and then I'll just kind of scoop him right in.

07:30He's being kind of comatose right now.

07:33Yeah, he's a slow mover.

07:35Yeah, he was really ready to rock, but now he's not.

07:43And that is our first python of the night.

07:48I love all snakes.

07:50I've been fascinated with them since I was a kid,

07:52since my dad put me in the creek and taught me how to catch all kinds of critters,

07:55and for some reason, this fascination with snakes,

07:58just, you know, it's been with me ever since.

08:00And the pythons are just an amazing, they're beautiful.

08:06They're absolutely beautiful.

08:07Wow, look at that.

08:11Look at that.

08:13It's a thing.

08:26Oh, my God.

08:29It is an incredible struggle.

08:31I love the pythons.

08:34I hate that we have to kill them.

08:38It's really hard.

08:42Oh, that is so cool.

08:44We have to get rid of these snakes, but it is incredibly hard.

08:48I mean, you have this big, giant, beautiful animal that you have to put down.

08:52It's heartbreaking.

08:56Once we catch the snakes and we euthanize them, I don't want them to get away.

09:01So then I skin them, I have them professionally tanned,

09:05and then I turn them into products like Apple Watch bands, things like that.

09:10To get a really good skin, it is kind of, it's a lot of work.

09:16So I'm going to start with this one.

09:20It's kind of tedious.

09:22It's kind of gross.

09:25It takes, I mean, it takes a while.

09:30It smells okay, though.

09:38Got one in my mouth.

09:41You know, I've kind of made it my mission to figure out

09:43how to use as much of the python as possible so they don't go to waste.

09:46You know, I can't, I hate the thought of them just being thrown out

09:50and not really honored or anything.

09:52Because it's not their fault they're here.

09:54It's so unfortunate.

09:55It's not their fault, but they do have to go.

09:58The meat isn't very good to eat, so, you know,

10:02their skin obviously is beautiful and it makes amazing leather products.

10:14So these skins have been professionally tanned.

10:19So I've got about 120 python skins here in my house.

10:22And before I bought this garment rack, and you can see, I mean, they're just thick.

10:26They just, like, keep going and going.

10:28And I even have, I have the smaller ones hanging on a rack inside.

10:34So, yeah, I've got tons of them.

10:35Before I got this, though, I had python skins over my couch.

10:40I had them in the spare bedroom.

10:42I mean, I've got them all up here.

10:44I've got all of them here, here, here.

10:53I mean, they're everywhere.

10:56So do you actually have clothes?

10:58They're somewhere in there.

10:59You know, I don't know.

11:00Oh, and I forgot about this, too.

11:02This is a 14-footer that I caught.

11:07She was 105 pounds.

11:09So, like, actually, I'll just.

11:15Yeah, this isn't even the biggest one that I've caught.

11:19But it's big.

11:22I mean, you know, try wrestling that.

11:28And this one is the one that bit me on the hand.

11:30I actually had the outline of the jaws on my hand from this one.

11:37So that is a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

11:41And they can also unhinge right here.

11:43So anything that they can get in their mouth, they can eat.

11:47This isn't even with her jaws open all the way.

11:50She could easily eat me.

11:52If they can fit the head in, they can fit the body of whatever the prey is.

11:55And I would be dinner if she wanted to eat me.

11:59So I'm glad that she didn't.

12:01And these are still razor-sharp.

12:04I just got pricked a little bit there.

12:14I've caught close to 400.

12:16That's a lot of pythons.

12:18But that's not even a fraction of what's out here, you know.

12:22We are way past the point of eradication.

12:25We will always have pythons in the Everglades.

12:28It looks bleak.

12:29We haven't found another way that's better than putting hunters out there to find them one at a time.

12:34And they're winning.

12:37But, you know, with every single python that we take out of the Everglades,

12:40we're saving the lives of hundreds of our native species.

12:43And that's what we need to do.

12:45Until we can find something that won't have an adverse effect on the rest of the wildlife,

12:51this is the best way.

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