In 2003, he finally found hatchlings, incontrovertible evidence of breeding-only to be told by the people in charge that it was now too late to stop the snakes. No one took his warnings seriously because he had no proof that pythons were mating in the wild. Rangers made a note of the discovery but made no inquiries about where the snake came from or if there might be more.īy the late 1990s, a National Park Service biologist named Ray “Skip” Snow had begun sounding the alarm about pythons taking over the Everglades. It measured 11-foot-9 and had been flattened by a car. The first Burmese python turned up on the outskirts of Everglades National Park in 1979. LADIES' NIGHT OUT Anne Gorden-Vega scours the roads and levees for signs of scales. Inside: an 8-footer they’d caught the night before, still alive. When I mentioned I was disappointed at not seeing one, they opened the big, locked box behind my seat and pulled out a white bag. We didn’t find a single python, making this a minimum wage night. I rode around in their back seat for six very long hours that night. “I can sit on a cruise ship when I’m an old lady.” “We want to get our adventure in now,” the 54-year-old said cheerfully. It didn’t lessen her enthusiasm for the hunt. The snake’s tooth remained lodged in her finger for months. Once, she was bitten on the hand by a struggling python. Van Gorder, an Army brat who grew up all over the place, said they also relish the adrenaline rush of wrestling with a big, hissing snake. “And now,” she said, “all you’re going to see are rats, gators and pythons. She pointed out that the pythons-powerful constrictors that squeeze the life out of their prey-have eaten plenty of birds and deer, and nearly all the foxes, raccoons, squirrels and other small mammals that once made the Everglades region special. “I’ve seen the changes that have taken place.” “I grew up down here,” Koehler, a 60-year-old Pembroke Pines native, said from the lookout perch. No, they’re doing it to try to make a difference in Florida’s environment. Photography courtesy of Beth Koehler and Peggy Van Gorder Read about Elvis the scout snake and other initiatives funded by the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida to help eradicate invasive species like Burmese pythons from the Everglades and lionfish from Florida waters.īeth Koehler and Peggy Van Gorder hold up one of their captures. ![]() Some nights the pair comes up empty, meaning they are basically making minimum wage. The job pays $8.46 an hour plus $50 per snake, with another $25-per-foot bonus for snakes longer than 4 feet. There’s hardly any profit in searching for the slithery invaders. They told me they’re not doing it for the money. The pair, known to their fellow python hunters as “PegBeth,” achieved some statewide fame last year when they bagged the 500th python to be caught by hunters working for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Koehler, thinner but more focused, stood with her head through the sunroof, peering ahead for any sign of a snake. The night I rode with them, the younger, more athletic Van Gorder drove, never going more than about 6 mph. The humid air is filled with a subdued chorus of hoots and ribbets. They switch on massive lights atop their Jeep, lights that turn the night as bright as day. ![]() Then they close up shop, pick up their camper and head down to the Everglades for three nights of hunting Burmese pythons.Įach night of the hunt, they spend hours slowly rolling along gravel back roads searching for the elusive invasive reptiles. Three days a week they run Hair of the Dog, their dog grooming salon in St. Photography by Mary Beth Koethįor Beth Koehler and Peggy Van Gorder, this is how it works: Anne Gorden-Vega holds the record for the most pythons captured in the Everglades.
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