Large-scale hunt: East County professional python hunters bring home the prize

A firefighter, orchid shop owner and retiree-turned-fossil-hunter walk into the Everglades ...

It's no joke, though, they came out a month later with 33 Burmese pythons to win the team category in the 2016 Python Challenge in February.

Bill Booth, Dusty Crum and Duane Clark aren’t novices when it comes to hunting invasive species in the swamp.

The three men, who live in East County near Myakka City, started hunting together a few years ago after they became friends through mutual acquaintances.

“The hunting industry is tight-knit,” Booth said. “Out here, it’s even smaller.”

For the three, who have spent a majority of their lives in Florida, python hunting isn’t about the adrenaline rush of getting their hands on a live, wild snake. They are performing a public service.

Burmese pythons are a non-native species and are harmful to the natural ecosystem of the Everglades. The pythons began to appear when people started releasing their pets into the wild because they did not want to care for them anymore. 

Although gators, otters and small carnivores might eat the youngest snakes, it’s a small window of time before the python becomes the top of the food chain. So, to help preserve the Everglades’ ecosystem, the state started a month-long

python hunting challenge in 2013.

Booth, a 51-year-old Myakka City firefighter, is a state-licensed python hunter. This allows him to hunt whenever he wants and take up to five people with him on his permit. Crum and Clark usually come with him.

“Hunters are the biggest conservationists,” said Crum, who is 35 and the owner of Orchid Envy in Venice. “They know what’s happening.”

The three men competed in the state’s first challenge in 2013 and came in second, catching six snakes. The contest did not run in 2014 or 2015, but when it returned in February, Booth’s team was ready. It came in first, catching 33 Burmese pythons.

“Taking second place was hard to swallow,” Booth said with a chuckle. “We’re competitive.”

The “Cypress Boys”— a name coined by a reporter who did a story about them in 2012, are true hunters. They pack up a truck, trailer and a boat and caravan to the Everglades, where they will set up camp for a month.

They love it.

“Just being out there, experiencing the Everglades, it’s a natural wonder of the world,” Booth said. “And, I get the opportunity to clean these snakes out.”

Reading the snake

The easiest way to spot a snake is to walk or ride along the levies and look for one sunning itself, Booth said.

The next trick is getting ahold of them.

“You have to read the snake,” Booth said.

Some of them can be aggressive and will strike. Although not poisonous, the constrictor species can still inflict a painful bite.

The pythons can be brought in for the challenge dead or alive with the hunters making the call depending on the level of danger.

Snake No. 29 was a biter.

Crum was walking the levy looking for the next python when he saw one lying out, sunning. He tried to get some photos of the snake before he caught it, but when the camera started clicking, the snake went off into the water. Crum caught it by the tail. In the meantime, his hat fell off and he was momentarily blinded as his long hair covered his eyes.

The snake took the opportunity to turn around and strike, biting Crum in the arm.

“I was pulling python teeth out of my arm,” he said with a laugh.

About two weeks into the challenge, the Cypress Boys knew they were on top of the leaderboard in pythons captured, a status that comes with a $5,000 prize for the top team. So, they were hoping to land a really big one, just for added entertainment.

They did.

Booth was walking a levy alone late in the morning when he spotted a snake about 30 feet away. Even from a distance, he could tell it was the big one they had been hoping to find.

“I had to do a double-take. This was the biggest snake I’d ever seen in the wild,” he said. “And, I knew I couldn’t handle one that big alone.”

He called up Clark, who bicycled back to where he and Booth had parted ways earlier that morning.

Clark eased into the water and grabbed its tail.

The snake started weaving through the cattails, trying to escape, dragging the two men into chest-deep swamp water.

Finally, they were able to pull the snake mostly out of the water and grab its head, which Booth said was the size of his hand.

They brought the snake in alive. It weighed 130 pounds and measured 15 feet.