Python hunter: Animal populations now critical in Florida Everglades

EVERGLADES, Fla. - The Burmese python is devouring many native species in the Florida Everglades and now there's an all-out effort to remove as many as possible before it's too late.

They are moving northward, likely searching for new food sources, as FOX13's Mark Wilson recently learned when he joined the annual Florida Python Challenge with one of the state's top python hunters.

"Once you find them, you can catch them if you know what you're doing. But finding them is absolutely the hardest part," said Brandon Rahe, who caught 40 pythons in July as a contractor licensed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and stays busy.

Rahe left a successful personal training business in St. Augustine to hunt pythons in the Everglades full-time.

He's among dozens of professional hunters participating in the state's annual hunt. 

But it attracts just as many amateurs with varying degrees of experience as 75-year-old Davis Hariman, who we met hunting by himself.

RELATED: Florida Python Challenge aims to remove invasive species from Everglades

And while hunting them alone can be done, it's not recommended.

Burmese pythons are non-venomous; they will bite, but they are constrictors, so the larger ones can strangle you in an instant if you don't handle them carefully.

Native to Asia, several were released as pets in the 80's and early 90's.

With no natural predators, they've feasted on a buffet of animals and have since had a devastating effect.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the bobcat population in the Everglades has dropped 87% since 1997, the possum population has dropped 98%, raccoons are down 99% and foxes and rabbits have "effectively disappeared." Many consider it to be a critical situation for native animals.

"That's absolutely because of the pythons," Rahe told FOX13's Mark Wilson.

READ: Python Patrol offers alternative for those not ready for Florida's annual constrictor competition

"If we drove around at night 30 years ago like we're doing, we would see all the things you just mentioned, and you're not going to see any of that tonight. Yeah, it's (crisis mode) big time," said Rahe.

As Brandon's YouTube channel shows, he's been busy. 

There are a handful of videos showing him on the hunt, finding pythons of all sizes, notably a 16-footer he's hoping will help him win the state's Python Challenge. 

Results from that competition are expected in October, but Brandon hopes to make an impact. He says he caught 40 pythons just in July and two of them were snakes on nests. 

One of them set a state record with at least 111 eggs. "Understandably, she was feisty," he said.

Rahe found them all in the heart of Everglades National Park in South Florida, about an hour southeast of Naples. 

That's where we met him to see the levee that runs through the park.

"We're playing the odds that we're going to catch one out and being active," Rahe said.

READ: Python with record-breaking 111 eggs removed from Everglades

The pythons usually creep out of the water at night and journey up to land to feed. During our five-hour hunt, we saw several native snakes and a feral hog but no pythons. We did notice the eerie quiet that falls over the Everglades at night, as we saw no other animals. 

When we high-stepped off-road for a few minutes, Brandon found a nest. 

The nests, he says, are called clutches; inside it, we find a handful of eggs from recent hatchlings. So he marked the spot to return and check on it later because he said even though the snakes had all hatched, the snake who made it would eventually return to reuse the nest.

Killing them brings Rahe and most hunters here mixed emotions.

"I love snakes. I love being out here catching snakes interacting with wildlife, but for every python that gets removed from the Everglades, how many native species have we saved from that one snake?" Rahe said. 

In 2003, most of them had been found in the southwest corner of the Everglades.

In 2012, they started creeping northward into Hendry County and Collier County and by 2021, more than two dozen of them had been caught north of Fort Myers and across the state.