Video: Florida Snake Hunters Eliminate 10 Pythons, Including Two 15-Footers
OutdoorHub Reporters 04.07.17
In as few as 10 days of the South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) Python Elimination Program, hunters have eliminated 10 Burmese pythons, measuring in total nearly 100 feet. So far, SFWMD has paid nearly $2,000 in cash to the snake bounty hunters.
According to a SFWMD news release, Patrick Campbell has captured the program’s biggest snake to date with a whopping 15-foot-10 inch python killed on April 2. This 135-pound catch accrued $350 for the snake hunter.
Unfortunately for those with ophidiophobia, (fear of snakes) that wasn’t the only 15-footer roaming the Florida Everglades. Hunters Nicholas Baños and Leonardo Sanchez found the second largest snake at 15 feet 2 inches.
Barry Offenburger has been “the most successful” hunter so far, killing three snakes in the first week. Barry is responsible for eliminating a 13-foot python, an 8-foot-2-inch python and a 6-foot-8-inch python. Those snakes netted $550 for Offenburger.
The news release states the following in regard to the payout structure for eliminating these snakes:
“Participants are paid $8.10 per hour up to eight hours daily. Depending on the size of the snake presented, there will be an additional on-the-spot per payment of $50 for pythons measuring up to 4 feet and an extra $25 for each foot measured above 4 feet. An additional $100 will be given for each eliminated python nest with eggs.” See example below:
