Mike Kimmel had been hunting for nine hours with nothing to show for it early Monday morning when he spied the Burmese python on a levee.

Unremarkable in size at just 7 feet, the invasive snake was still a notable catch.

The 3 a.m. find was the 2,000th python caught and killed by hunters in the South Florida Water Management District's landmark python elimination program that has attracted worldwide attention from celebrity chefs and rock stars to conservationists.

Launched two years ago, the program pays snake slayers by the hour to hunt on water management district property deep in South Florida's Everglades where the snakes have climbed the food chain and decimated native animal populations.

Kimmel said he didn't know until later Monday that his catch marked the 2,000th python.

"I hunted all night and hadn't caught anything but didn't want to give up," said Kimmel, 30, of Indiantown. "Then, right in the middle of the levee, there it was, just cruisin'."

Without an accurate count of how many pythons there are in the Everglades, it's hard to judge the success of the district's program, but Kimmel said he's seen an increase in wildlife since the hunts began.

A 2011 study that looked at small mammal populations in Everglades National Park found declines of between 87 and 99 percent for raccoon, opossums, white-tailed deer and bobcats. The study, which included scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, said no rabbits or foxes were seen in park surveys between 2003 and 2011.

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"I hadn't seen a rabbit in the Everglades since last weekend. Raccoons, otters, marsh rabbits, they're coming back," said Kimmel, who owns Martin County Trapping and Wildlife Rescue. "We need to stick to what we're doing and keep managing the python population the way we are to give our native wildlife a fighting chance."

Previous efforts to contain or reduce the python population in the Everglades have included a wide array of techniques, including implanting female snakes with trackers, hiring snake hunters from the Irula tribe in India, training snake-sniffing dogs and holding python-hunting contests.

"This is the most successful management to date, but it's just one tool in the toolbox," said a South Florida Water Management District scientist and project manager for the python elimination program. "You have to take into account that about 50 percent of pythons removed have been adult females each capable of laying 40 to 100 eggs per season."

VIDEO: Watch epic battle between python and alligator caught by Post reporter

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The program has also drawn attention to Florida's fight against the Burmese python with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne and multiple state politicians going on python safaris.

The district has about 25 hunters who earn minimum wage for up to 40 hours per week. Time spent searching for pythons is verified through a GPS tracking app.

A November audit of the program, which included numbers through August, found the average python killed cost $219 with total costs at that point of $292,349. The district has $125,000 set aside in its 2019-2020 budget to continue the program. The audit notes that the program hasn't just been good at catching pythons.

"Participants have served as land stewards, reporting poachers, trespassers, fires and vandalism on district lands," the report said.

Kimmel, whose Instagram handle is @pythoncowboy, said the key to hunting pythons is being willing to put in the time and get dirty. He wrestled Monday's python bare-handed.

"If I'm going out to hunt, I'm going until I capture something or until I know I don't have a chance and that's usually about sunrise," he said. "I'm not scared, I'm comfortable with it. That's not to say when I come across an 18-foot python my heart's not pounding a little bit."

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@KmillerWeather

This story originally published to palmbeachpost.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the GateHouse Media network.







