In south Louisiana's marshlands...
I don't know what yet, but something's going on here.
A vital source of income vanishes...
I've been hunting nutria rats a long time,
but just like a snap of the finger, they gone.
Putting Ronnie Adams' livelihood at risk...
I depend on that money. I'm in big trouble.
It's just like a plague has hit the marsh.
I don't know if it's something to do with the weather.
With no clues about where to locate his quarry...
It's like they always one step ahead of us.
He asks Troy and a few other swampers for some help.
Go over there, Ronnie! Hurry!
If Ronnie's lucky, they'll find the answers he needs.
Get him, Mr. Troy!
[gunshot]
Shoot!
There he is, swimming!
Get him, get him, get him!
My name is Troy Landry.
I grew up in south Louisiana deep in the swamps.
My whole life, I've been hunting alligators...
[gunshot]
...snakes, and all kind of other animals.
Down here in the bayou, we have a code.
When somebody needs your help, you lend a hand.
No matter what's at stake.
In Violet, Louisiana,
King of the Swamp Troy Landry is responding
to an S.O.S. call from a fellow hunter.
I'm on my way to talk to Ronnie.
Ronnie lives south of New Orleans
in a little town called Violet.
It's towards the mouth of the Mississippi River,
and there's a lot of wetlands. It's a wild area.
It's one of the few wild areas left in this country.
And after alligator season,
Ronnie normally depends on hunting to pay his bills,
and he just lost his source of income.
He's kind of freaking out over this.
Ronnie!
What's going on?
How's the family?
Everybody's good.
Good deal.
-How you been, buddy? -I'm good.
-You doing all right? -Yes, sir.
Man, Mr. Troy, I truly appreciate
you coming down here to help, because I'm in big trouble.
I tell ya, I've been hunting nutria rats a long time.
Man, I kill thousands every year, but they gone.
-You can't find 'em? -Can't find one.
I haven't seen a nutria in weeks,
and I depend on that money.
I'm in big trouble.
Like many swampers, Ronnie relies on nature
to earn his living.
When alligator season ends, he turns to fishing, trapping,
and hunting, including nutria hunting,
to supplement his income.
This way of living is both a tradition and a necessity,
and for Ronnie, the nutrias' sudden disappearance
is a major concern.
I kill 4,000 to 5,000 nutria a year,
and every year with the nuisance program going on,
there's roughly 400,000 to 500,000
nutria rats killed a year,
and we get $6.00 a tail before taxes.
Louisiana's nutria bounty program
began in 2002 as a response
to the extensive damage these invasive rodents cause
to the state's wetlands.
The animals were first introduced here in the 1930s
by fur traders and meant to be bred
as a replacement for beaver.
According to legend, a few nutria escaped
from breeding pens in New Orleans
during a hurricane and escaped to the swamp,
where their population exploded.
Ronnie, normally they got thousands and thousands
of them things out there.
I know what you're saying.
They were there, but they are gone.
Man, normally they not that hard to find.
Tell you what. If you find one nutria rat,
I'll treat you to lunch.
All right, all right. Let's go.
You want me to back you in? You ready to go?
I'm ready to go, baby.
Let me unhook this and we ready, baby.
I believe in my heart that
once I get in the boat with Ronnie
and we start riding around,
I think we gonna find 'em.
It's just a matter of time.
No such thing as we can't find 'em.
All right, I'm buying you lunch if you find one.
Let's go see what we can figure out.
Ronnie brings Troy to the area he leases each year
to hunt nutria so they can search
for signs of the missing creatures.
In south Louisiana,
swampers often lease large tracts from big landowners
to access prime hunting territories.
It helps reduce devastation
caused by invasive species like nutria.
I take Troy out there
to see the damage it's doing to the property,
and it's all fresh signs.
It's just brown, dead.
It's just like a plague has hit a section of the marsh.
But the nutria's absolutely gone.
Oh, yeah.
Let's keep moving, Ronnie, let's keep moving.
Ronnie suggests they visit a neighbor for more insights.
He's been with these nutria rats,
dealing with 'em on his property his entire life.
So, you know, touch base with him a little bit,
and see what the hell's going on.
Try to get a game plan.
Yeah. Phil Livaudais, I've been knowing the family
for a long time, and he's been
dealing with nutria since he was a kid.
So I'd say Mr. Phil Livaudais
is probably one of the best
to get knowledge about nutria rats.
Hey, Ronnie.
Man, I'm so glad you could meet us.
-Hey, no problem. -This is Mr. Troy Landry.
Hey, Mr. Phil, how you doing, buddy?
Nice seeing you, nice meeting you.
-You doing all right? -Doing fine.
-How's everything with you? -Oh, it's good.
We just gotta help Ronnie
figure out the problem with these nutria.
You could tell they were there.
When we go to hunt 'em, they not there.
-They not there? -Just like they just
-disappeared. -You talking about your area?
Yes, sir, absolutely.
I know that they gotta be around
because the vegetation is still disappearing.
Everything is happening like it has been for years.
I know. That's why we wanted to come meet with you
because you've been out here all your life,
and I just want-- trying to get a grasp on this.
I'm thinking they just ran out of food
and they moving for the food.
But Ronnie, it don't look like
it's maybe the food. It looks like
it's could be something else driving 'em to move.
I don't know if it's something to do with the weather
or these storms coming in lately
that could've pushed some saltwater in,
or maybe moved that freshwater around in different areas
that caused the problem where they move and they migrate.
Yeah, you're right, because we just had that big storm
not too long ago. That could be an issue.
-It was bad, too. -Yeah.
Powerful storms
can push saltwater deep into the marsh.
It's something freshwater species like crawfish, gators,
and nutria can't tolerate,
and it forces them to move somewhere else to survive.
They may be migrating from one area to the next.
Yeah, they might've went further than we were looking.
But, man, where they went? I mean, nutria don't have wings.
They don't usually just pack up and fly away.
Mr. Phil thinks that it could have something to do
with the last big storm.
It moves a lot of saltwater in,
and, you know, it changes everything
for months and sometimes for years.
The grass will turn brown,
and it's not attractive to the nutria,
so they'll move.
Well, we definitely need to go back out there
and look for signs of saltwater from the storm.
Right. Absolutely.
Thank you, Mr. Phil, for meeting me, my baby.
-No problem, Ronnie. Any time. -Yes, sir. Absolutely.
Troy and Ronnie decide to take to the skies
to learn if saltwater incursion
has impacted nutria in this area.
Oh, yeah, buddy. We got something here, my baby.
I feel like an aerial view,
it's gonna show us where a lot of saltwater came in
and hopefully help figure out where these nutrias went to.
You know, with this eye in the sky, she never lies,
and if I think something that's out of the ordinary,
then I'mma tell you, "Mr. Troy--
-Okay... right... -That don't look right.
Then you can chime in and tell me what you think.
-That's right, that's right. -Here we go. You ready?
-Oh, yeah. -And up.
All right, let's fly it over the marsh
right there where we went.
-What is that right there? -Ooh, what is that?
To figure out where the nutria have gone,
Troy and Ronnie take to the skies.
All right, let's fly it over the marsh
right there where we went.
-What is that right there? -Ooh, what is that?
Look, the vegetation's all brown in this area.
Everything's brown here.
Saltwater. I guarantee that had something to do
with the storm and the saltwater.
Go a little bit more to the east, Ronnie.
Look at the trails going to the edge right here.
Look at the trails.
That's nutria trails?
Why are they going into the wide open water?
Something's driving 'em to move.
This is fresh. They close to this area.
The only problem is normally the trails will go
into vegetation, but these trails
look like they going into open water.
So we not sure what's going on here.
That's where all the trails are leading to?
Yes, sir.
I say we go there tonight.
I think you right, baby.
Maybe we call Joey, Joey Edgar.
Maybe we call him to come help us for a few days.
Let's do it.
You know, I feel like a private eye,
and I'm hoping and praying we find these nutria,
because I depend on that bounty to survive.
-Bring that baby home. -All right, here we go.
Later that day...
Troy and Ronnie pay a visit
to another lifetime marsh resident, Joey Edgar.
-Hey. -What's going on?
Hey, buddy, how you doing? All right?
-Oh, yeah. -Doing okay?
-How you doing, babe? -Good, good.
-Hey, Miss Kallie. -Hey.
How you doing, my baby?
-Good. And you? -I'm good.
Kallie is Joey's daughter,
and she's passionate about hunting and fishing
and saving the wetlands.
She's got a lot of energy, and she's young and smart.
Joey, you was having trouble
with the nutria in the marsh on your property?
-Yeah. -We went out on his place.
Everything is tore up, but we can't find 'em.
Ronnie been looking for a week.
Yeah.
-Can't find nothing. -Damn.
Saltwater might've moved in
with a storm or something and pushed 'em out.
We just gotta figure out where they went.
Every day we don't find these nutria,
I am losing money.
We may need to use something to find 'em.
Kallie, Dad, and I, we bought some thermal gear
and we gonna try to use that to help Ronnie and Troy out.
What you got?
Thermal imaging.
-Come on. -Yeah.
Whoo-hoo-hoo! This is a game changer.
-It sees body temperature. -Yeah.
Any animal, they'll glow in the dark.
Joey was all excited to come and help Ronnie,
help us figure out where his nutrias are hiding at.
But he got some hi-tech equipment.
Him and his little daughter got some handheld scopes,
thermal imaging.
You can see every animal out there in the marsh at night.
They glow.
And Joey said they used 'em
and they were very successful with 'em.
Before hi-tech accessories
like thermal imaging scopes became available,
night hunters often used strong spotlights.
When the hunt required a more stealthy approach, however,
swampers instead relied on moonlight.
You're getting me pumped up, pop.
-We all set up. -I'm ready.
Me and Kallie, you and Ronnie, let's try these things out
and see if we can find 'em with that.
Hey, I'm all for it.
-What you think, Ron? -Absolutely.
Kallie, you okay with that? Daddy, you wanna go ride?
Yeah, most def. I'll come help you guys out.
-You gonna come? -Yeah, I'm coming.
-Okay, daddy. -Good. Good, good, good.
I'm real excited.
Instead of going like Ronnie and I did during the day,
we'll go at night with them thermal imaging things,
and I think it's gonna be a game changer.
I think it's gonna help us.
-Mr. Joe, thank you, baby. -Yes, sir.
-Miss Kallie, thank you. -We'll see y'all right at dark.
Absolutely.
Later that night,
armed with Joey's thermal imaging scopes,
the hunters split up to search for the nutria den.
Stay right along the grass.
As Troy and Ronnie head west,
Joey and Kallie head east.
I don't see nothing, Dad.
Oh, my God, we might have to go a little further.
But neither team is having much luck.
Are you seeing anything with that thing?
I'm not seeing nothing.
So we coming out with the handheld thermals.
We riding around, looking. We not finding nutria rats.
That's what I'm worried about.
It's just aggravating.
We gotta figure something out.
In a marsh usually overrun by pesky nutria...
-Where they at? -The swampers face
something unexpected.
Hey, I ain't seeing nothing!
It's so frustrating. If I had hair,
I'd pull the rest of it out.
I just don't quite understand it.
My mind is boggled that no nutria rats.
We can't find 'em with the thermals.
We're not seeing nothing, Ronnie.
Nothing. I told you they not here.
I see a lot of birds.
Saw a couple of alligators.
I'm not seeing no...
no nutria rats. None.
But look at the destruction.
Every warm-blooded animal
you see at night glows in the dark.
You can see the birds, you can see everything,
but we not finding nutria.
We finding everything but nutria.
We overlooking something.
They might be piled up in one place
because you haven't been hunting there.
They could be piled up
in some little remote area that we overlooking.
Well, let's go regroup, Mr. Troy,
-and see what we can do. -We have to.
Let's go check on Joey and Kallie,
see how they're doing. Maybe they might've found 'em.
Joey!
Did we find 'em or what?
No. I ain't seeing nothing.
But you can see they ate all of that marsh.
-Oh, yeah. -No marsh left.
All right, boys and girls.
Whatever the problem is, we gotta figure it out.
Despite their disappointing outing,
the team decides to try again the next night.
Meanwhile, Ronnie takes the daylight hours
to earn a few extra bucks fishing.
It's just one of the many sources of income
that help him survive during the gator offseason.
What you say, Tony?
What's going on? You ready today?
Oh, I'm ready again, baby.
You went out and put out any more nets?
-I put out a few more. -Okay.
I mean, give us a little something, you know.
Yeah.
Right now, I mean, I gotta make ends meet,
I gotta pay bills,
and I don't have an extra cash flow coming in.
I gotta make it happen.
In between catching nutrias and gator fishing,
I have a partner, Mr. Tony.
And right now I'm right in the middle
of catching choupique for the eggs,
and I gotta do something to make ends meet.
T-Tony, I'm ready! Get me on some fish.
Come on, choupique.
Choupique, also known as bowfin,
belong to the sturgeon family
and are native to the southeastern United States.
Choupique eggs, locally called Cajun caviar,
have become a high-dining delicacy
in the last two decades.
While it's cheaper than the famous black caviar
from the Caucasus mountains in Europe,
harvesting it during spawning season
can provide swampers with another source of income.
You're getting $20 a pound
for the egg. It's unreal.
Oh, I see the net.
-Yeah. -Oh, I see cork's down.
-That-- That is a good sign. -Yeah.
Gillnets is just a net that we put across the water.
Anchors on the bottom, corks on the top.
And these gillnets catch the hell out of these choupiques.
Using gillnets is a traditional method of fishing
in the shallow waters of the Atchafalaya Basin.
A net spread between two poles is anchored with weights,
creating the perfect trap for passing fish.
Got it.
Not much.
Golly.
I never seen such good conditions and have nothing.
-Nope. -Never.
I'mma go roll to the next one, see--
Boy, I hope we got something--
-in the next one. -This other one right here
usually catches a few.
Look at that big gator, y'all.
Oh, right there, big old gator.
Yeah, they getting active now, Tony.
That little sumbitch went down, huh?
Yeah.
Watch if he hit my pole.
It might be tied up with something.
I hope-- I hope it's all fish, choupique.
Okay, watch your hands.
Oh, Lord, here we go again.
Oh, my God!
As they pull up one of their gillnets,
Ronnie and Tony get a surprise.
It might be tied up with something.
Okay, watch your hands. Oh, Lord, here we go again.
Oh, my God!
Oh, look at that hole.
-That's an alligator. -Look at that hole, bro.
Even I could climb through that.
We started running some gillnets,
and we were coming across big holes,
and all that is-- is because of the alligators.
The fish get caught in the nets, and it's a free meal for 'em,
and they're gonna take the whole net half the time.
We got gators busting the nets up.
We ain't catching no choupique.
It's been bad.
It don't take a lot at the price,
but you got to catch something.
I know.
Get about halfway and we just gonna pull the net.
-Don't pick it up too high. -I'm not.
Whoo! Yeah, baby!
We in business now, papa.
Oh, yeah, baby,
I like the sound of that.
That's a $30 fish.
Oh, yeah.
That's a big one, papa.
-Got a little something. -Yeah.
Gotta pay the bills somehow, daddio.
Got to pay the bills...
somehow.
We caught choupique, we caught catfish,
we caught the buffalo fish. You gotta put money
in your pocket and food on the table,
so we let nothing go to waste in the swamp.
Everything is used for some type of giddy-up.
Come on, T!
Oh, there we go, baby.
Ooh, it's a good one, it's a good one.
Yeah, you're right.
This bucket's starting to fill up, baby.
Yeah, that's good.
We started out cold, but, boy, she's picking up.
We got one more?
There's the last net right there.
Oh, Lordy.
-It's looking good here, papa. -Yeah.
Come on, baby.
Got something. I thought I saw the jug move.
All right, at least it's not-- it's not ate up.
Yup.
All right, Ronnie.
What you got, baby?
Ooh, man, what's going on?
What is that?
That's a freaking snapper.
Oh, hell, yeah. That's good eating, baby.
That's a first.
Look like a snapping turtle, a greenback from the distance.
-Look-a here. -Oh, hell, yeah, Tony.
I've never seen that, never.
I can't believe it. This is a first, Ron.
You got me good luck.
Now watch your hands around that mouth, Tony.
Yeah, I'm watching. I thought it was a nutria.
I thought it was a greenback.
I tell you a nutria's rare.
We gonna catch a turtle before we catch a nutria.
How you cooking it for us tonight?
Gonna cook a sauce piquante.
Oh, I'm all for that.
There we go, baby.
Come on out. Watch your foot, Tony.
-I got him. -Where you gonna put him at?
-That's a nice turtle, man. -Look at that motherhumper, boy!
You have six, seven pounds of meat in that boy.
You see this, huh, buddy?
That where you gonna be later on.
-Ooh, that's good eating. -Oh, is that good eating.
I'm blown away, because you don't never catch
snapping turtles in a gillnet,
and, I mean, we are fishing for one delicacy,
and we caught another.
Because we gonna eat the snapping turtle,
because they are absolutely delicious.
Good day, Tony. Let's get outta here, baby.
Oh, look at that big gator in the front over there.
Oh, yeah, that's a big gator. They everywhere.
-Look up ahead, Ronnie. -Oh, yeah, look at him.
-See how close we can get... -He's in the water.
...to him, yeah, he crossing right over there.
I seen a couple behind us.
They got some big gators in here.
Something's going on with 'em.
Let's head on back to Duffy's.
Well, we did pretty good.
The strong survive, huh?
-Yeah, that's it. -[laughs]
Back at Duffy's,
Ronnie and Tony prepare to process the choupique
and harvest the precious Cajun caviar.
Hand me some choupique, baby.
It's a delicacy.
It sells for big money all over the country.
And the choupique, you wouldn't believe it,
but choupique come up with an unbelievable egg
that people just absolutely love.
You just hand me the stuff.
Oh, he's loaded, huh?
-Yeah, he got some eggs. -Put 'em right here, baby.
Dude, this is swamp gold, huh?
-Yeah, it's crazy, huh? -Look at that, bra.
To prepare the eggs for salting,
Ronnie runs them through a screen
that removes the membrane holding them together.
I love doing this. This is the coolest thing, huh?
Yeah.
We got a good process going.
I'm doing the eggs, and he's slicing.
I'm doing the eggs.
-Hey, look. -Oh.
They eat anything.
That's a water snake, too, huh?
-Yeah, they'll eat anything. -Look at that.
As the two men work,
the King of the Swamp stops by to check in.
What y'all say, gentlemen?
What you say, Mr. Troy?
Hey, buddy, y'all caught or what? Y'all caught?
We caught 11 of 'em. Take a look.
Some of that Cajun caviar?
-Oh, yeah. -Oh, yeah, baby.
What they pay now, Tony?
Twenty.
$20? I thought it was 15.
No, it's 20 now.
They hard to catch.
But guess what? I got a surprise for you.
-Huh? -Let me show you
the surprise I got you.
You got a surprise for me?
Oh, stay right here. I'm coming.
What you got, Ronnie?
Hey, hey, hey, baby.
Where y'all got that?
You ain't gonna believe it.
On the road, crossing the road?
No, we caught it in the gillnet.
-Not in your net. -Oh, yeah.
I thought it was a nutria floating.
I said look here.
-What? -That's for you.
-That's for me? -Yes, sir.
Oh, man, that's my first one I catch, man.
No, no, no, that's my turtle.
Thank you, Ronnie, thank you.
That's your turtle, Mr. Troy. You bet, my baby.
-Thank you, Tony. -[laughs]
Thank you, Tony.
As much as Mr. Troy has been helping me out,
I wanna give him the snapping turtle
because that son of a gun can cook turtle.
And that's his favorite food.
Ronnie shares a new insight
about the missing nutria with Troy.
Let me tell you what's going on.
Right now, the amount of gators out was unreal.
You don't normally see them big ones in the shallow water.
And nutria are terrified of alligators.
We had a big storm hit the area where Ronnie hunts,
and had a lot of saltwater intrusion.
So I'm thinking in my mind that the saltwater done moved 'em.
It'll move alligators.
Wonder if we oughta put that drone
back up in the air.
Let's do it this afternoon.
Let's do it.
With the saltwater intrusion,
plus the alligators moving into this area,
I think them nutrias could've moved.
They might've crossed open water.
They don't normally cross big bodies of open water,
but I'm thinking they might've done it this time.
I'll meet you at the launch.
Intrigued by their new theory,
Troy and Ronnie take to the skies once again.
Right across that open water,
we gonna find an island or something in that direction
where they feel safe,
and that's where they're gonna be piled up.
Hoping they finally have a solid idea
where the nutria may be hiding...
Troy and Ronnie send up the drone one more time.
Right across that open water,
we gonna find an island or something in that direction
where they feel safe,
and that's where they're gonna be piled up.
Keep going, keep going east, keep going.
-Okay. -Let's cross the open water
and see what's on the other side.
They not just going to the open water for nothing.
Last night we didn't go at all
-on this end here, right? -No, no.
I don't see nothing but open water.
Look, look at the edge right there.
Oh, oh, you right.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
I guarantee you that's the island they going to.
Exceptional swimmers,
nutria are able to move long distances
to find food or escape predators.
These images suggest the vanished rodents
have found a new home.
-All right. -Look at that.
Look at the nutria trails in there.
It's full of fresh trails.
Oh, look, was that a nutria?
-Let me zoom in a little bit. -I'm not sure.
Look, I just seen something.
That open water
-leads to all this. -Right.
-Huh?! -We didn't go at all
-right there. -No, I think that's
where we need to go. I bet you that's
where they went last night.
Sure enough, just like I expected,
Ronnie flew his drone in the opposite direction.
And he had to go far, he had to go a good ways,
and he started finding some little islands,
and we caught a glimpse of a nutria.
Still a lot of green vegetation,
and I guarantee this is where they hide.
We need to go there tonight.
-Yeah. -That's where we need to go.
I'm all for that.
With no time to waste,
the crew heads to what they hope
is an island crawling with nutria.
-Y'all ready? -Yes, sir.
We gonna put it on 'em, baby.
I think so. I'm excited.
The island we saw on the drone, it's got to be the spot.
We just need to get out there and find 'em.
My season and my income are seriously in danger,
and getting the bounty will really help me.
So, tonight we going straight to that spot.
What we got here, dude, what we got?
We got one and one.
Handheld and the rifle, Mr. Troy.
Them nutria rats in trouble tonight,
-that's all I can say. -Oh, yeah.
Ronnie, you gonna spot, and Troy gonna shoot.
I'm gonna spot and then Kallie's gonna shoot.
-Go ahead, Kallie. -Oh, we got that.
Let's put it on 'em.
If our hunch is right, we'll see a ton of nutria.
And my friends brought these firearms that can hunt at night
to help me save my season.
I just can't tell you how much that means to me.
-Good luck to y'all. -All right, good luck.
-Thank y'all. Same to y'all. -Go put it on 'em.
Dude, are y'all pumped up or what?
As darkness shrouds the marsh...
the swampers split up
to approach the island from two separate angles.
It's important to see each other at night especially
because we're trying to practice gun safety.
We don't want any accidents.
So we're gonna spread out a little bit,
but not far enough where we can't see each other.
Hey, straight over there.
We gonna keep going this way?
Yeah.
This is fire, baby, huh?
We're going out with the handheld thermals
plus the scopes on the rifles.
And hopefully we're gonna find 'em.
This is it. This is the island,
the one we saw on the drone.
Oh, they gotta be here, Ronnie, they gotta be here.
-Are you seeing anything? -No.
I don't see nothing.
We can't find 'em.
Keep going up.
Look, you see 'em, Dad?
That's a-- a bird.
Dad, where they at?
What you see?
I don't see nothing, Dad.
I don't know where they at, but they here.
-See one? -Yeah.
Right there.
It's a bird. They got a bunch of birds.
A bird?
Right now, we cannot find a nutria.
I just don't understand where the hell the rats went.
Where they at?
I'm not seeing nothing.
Where the hell they went?
Even using these thermals, we cannot find a nutria.
I just don't understand where they went to.
Hey, let's work this grass.
You seeing anything?
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
We got one right there!
Let's go!
Got a couple over there.
Go over there, Ronnie. Hurry!
There you go. Right there, baby.
I'm on him.
-[gunshot] -Oh, good shot, my baby.
Yes, indeed.
Let's go pick him up.
After finally finding the nutria den,
Ronnie feels optimistic.
Yeah, baby!
Give me some of that, Mr. T!
Boy, they are thicker than Cooter Brown,
and we are getting on 'em.
I mean, I'm just blown away
because we are busting 'em up.
Meanwhile, Joey and Kallie are having similar success.
That's him, that's him.
Scoot up a little bit more.
[gunshot]
Good job.
We just had to go a little bit further.
And once we got into 'em, we saw big bunches of 'em,
and the fun was getting ready to start.
Now, that's how you do it. [laughs]
Head shot.
Kallie's doing good.
Kallie always does well.
And Kallie's good with a gun.
I was confident.
She's been hunting her whole life.
Right there.
-Get him! -[gunshot]
Oh, oh!
You got him, baby.
We got another one at one o'clock!
We found 'em now.
-[gunshot] -That a boy.
Everywhere you look with them thermal imaging,
they was glowing in the dark.
It look like our hunch about the nutrias moving to the island
and across open water was right.
This is gonna help Ronnie a lot.
Yeah, papa!
We got 50.
Look over there, dad.
Shoot.
-[gunshot] -That's right.
Go over there, Ronnie. Hurry.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
There you go, right there, baby.
-[gunshot] -Ooh, you dropped him.
Let's go pick him up.
Right now, I feel like me and Troy's
got close to a hundred in the boat.
I'm hoping Joey and Kallie
is putting it on 'em like we are.
Across the marsh,
Joey and Kallie are loading their boat with nutria.
There's one!
Shoot!
-[gunshot] -Good job, daddy.
The father-daughter team
is making a real dent in the nutria population.
They've removed over 135 of these invasive pests so far.
Good job.
We looking good.
-A mile away... -I think that was 150.
Troy and Ronnie are having similar success.
Got a big one. I got a big one over there.
Let's go.
Get him, Mr. Troy, get him!
[gunshot]
Got him, baby. Bam!
Oh, them scopes is unbelievable.
And when we got in 'em, we got in 'em.
We catching nutrias everywhere.
Got one right over here.
-Let's go check it out. -Okay.
I see one over there.
Joey and Kallie now have 160 in their boat,
but they too are racing against the clock.
You got it, you got it.
Shoot!
-[gunshot] -I got it.
Good job, daddy.
Kallie killed a bunch of nutria.
I think Ronnie will be satisfied.
But spending time with my daughter
and showing off a little bit,
that was really cool, and I really enjoyed that.
-Now, that's how you do it. -Yeah.
[Kallie laughs]
Last one, we heading back.
That's one right over there. At nine o'clock.
Let me get you closer. Hold on.
There he is.
Get him, get him, get him!
-[gunshot] -Shot over it, you shot over it.
As dawn approaches, Troy and Ronnie try to bag
one last varmint.
Get him, get him!
-[gunshot] -Shot over it, you shot over it.
I'm gonna put you right on the side of it.
-Shoot, shoot. -[gunshot]
Got him, baby!
Whoo-hoo! Yeah, baby!
Give me some of that, Mr. T!
The sun's coming up shortly,
but tonight was a real productive night.
I mean, I am stoked because we found 'em,
so right now I'm feeling real comfortable with my property.
-We just starting to have fun. -I know.
The hunters' boats converge to take stock of their catch.
I feel like me and Troy's got close to 200
of these nutrias outta here.
We're about to get together and see how many we got total.
Whoa, Joey.
It look like y'all got a stack, huh?
-Yeah. -Cinderella, give me some.
-What y'all got, my baby? -Man, Mr. Troy.
-Ooh, look at that. -Look at the big one I shot.
Yeah, girl, that's what I'm talking about.
Head shot only.
We hit 'em hard. We hit 'em by surprise.
They had no idea we was coming.
And it feels so good to be able to help Ronnie.
That's what family and friends are for.
You know how much damage
nutrias would've done...
-Right. -...in the next week?
Yeah, no more marsh left.
That's it. They eat their body size in grass in one a day.
-Yeah. -We put a hurting on 'em.
We helped the environment big time today, Miss Kallie.
-That's a good thing. -Thank you, my baby.
-You're welcome. -What they paying now, Ronnie?
$6.00 a tail.
The teams have culled 327 nutria,
a boon to the marshlands and to Ronnie,
who will collect nearly $2,000.
It was a very successful night.
I think Ronnie's happy.
Here in the South, one hand washes the other.
It's the neighborly thing to do.
Good job, Kallie.
-Put the hurt on 'em, Mr. Troy. -Good job, Mr. Joey.
-You had fun? -I had fun.
Awesome, awesome.
I was watching y'all.
I think you shoot a lot better than your dad.
I do, Mr. Troy. I got a good eye.
-[all laugh] -That's what I'm talking about.
We were lucky that we thought about going to talk to Joey
because he was able to help us
and he's the one that had all that nice, fancy equipment.
And we made it a very, very successful hunt.
And, you know, I was very happy
to go give him all the nutria.
If you can help some of your friends,
and he would help us in return.
-Thank y'all so much. -You're welcome.
I can't appreciate y'all enough, my baby.
Oh, we happy to be here, Ronnie. We enjoyed it.
-Hell, yeah. -We all did.
I can't tell Joey and Troy and Kallie
how thankful I am for 'em, because they are a blessing
to come out here and help me do this.
My heart goes out to 'em.
All right, let's go get some rest.
Come on. Let's get out of here.
Good job, guys.
Yup, very good job.
With Ronnie's income secured,
the victorious hunters return home
for some well-earned rest.
The next day, the team gathers at St. Mary's
to celebrate saving Ronnie's season
with some homemade hog stew.
Fellas, y'all ready?
Good old wild hog.
-I'm ready. -Yes, sir.
You know, any mystery can be solved
if you work hard enough.
And we took 327 nutrias out of this area.
It's a big win for Ronnie to be able to pay his bills,
plus it's gonna help save the marsh.
And I think by bringing Joey and Kallie in,
I think that's what made the difference.
I'm glad we got rid of them nutria.
That's a nuisance.
People have no idea how much damage they can cause.
-Right? -You know, my baby,
what y'all helped me do, helped me save my season,
that just means the world to me.
That's what friends and family do,
-look out for each other. -Absolutely.
-Of course. -And in this day and age,
-it don't happen enough. -Nope.
The help I got from Mr. Troy
and Mr. Joey and Miss Kallie,
it's heartwarming, and it just makes you feel so good.
And it's a blessing to be a part
of this swamp family and swamp life.
That wild hog is good.
It is delicious.
Neighbors help neighbors.
To have friends like that
and just to share that with 'em,
that was really special.
And that's what we hold onto in time.
And it's good your daddy brought you along,
you know, getting young kids involved and all that.
-Yes, sir. -Y'all our future.
Yeah.
It's about family and coming together
to help each other with each issue.
That's exactly right.
-No matter what it is. -No matter what it is.