As invasive Burmese pythons continue to proliferate the swamps and forests of South Florida, the state is seeking out a few dozen people who want to patrol the area and kill large snakes.
The South Florida Water Management District started the program in 2017 to protect the Everglades from the species, which has ballooned in population and become an apex predator since it was introduced decades ago.
“We’re going to be asking for 50 paid hunters,” program director Mike Kirkland told the Fort Myers News-Press. “It’s been a tremendous success, the most successful program in the history of the issue by a wide margin in terms of snakes caught and cost effectiveness.”
People who work with the program have a GPS locator installed onto their phones that shows their location during the hunt. They get paid a minimum hourly wage, and additionally receive an incentive payment of $50 for every snake killed over four feet and $25 for every foot over that. The pythons are typically between 6 to 10 feet, but 22 longer than 15 feet have been killed since the start of the snake slaying program.
Since the program began, more than 2,500 of the serpents have been dispatched, a number so large that the South Florida Water Management District is asking for an additional $750,000 to fund the program.
In order to become the newest python hunter, applicants must be over the age of 18 and no recent criminal history. Participants will be permitted to use firearms when killing.
