As hunters wage war on Florida's Burmese pythons...
What about The Gap?
It's a no man's land.
We've heard it's a nightmare.
The deadly serpents strike back.
Zak, snake!
Whoa! That was close, dude.
Swampers must dig deep...
-Oh! Oh! -There he is!
-There he is, there he is. -It's a big one!
And rise above the fray...
If we don't figure out where we're going,
we're gonna be in trouble.
Watch it, watch it, watch it!
Calling upon every last resource...
Think she's on a trail, man. I ain't never been this way.
Before the Everglades are lost...
-Bruce, snake, snake! -Forever.
Aah! He bit me again, that mother...
Oh! There he goes, by your head.
-Aah! -Aah!
In the Everglades cypress swamp...
-Dumping on us today. -Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, this is a hell of a storm.
Troy and Tes are braving a storm
in search of a worthy prize.
Just is supposing there's a giant female.
They're saying at least, at least 14 or 15 foot long.
Okay, wait, so you're... you can believe this?
That's what they claim.
Every time they see it,
it's right after a big storm passes.
Some of our friends that have camps in the Glades,
they've been seeing a big snake after a big rain.
When the sun's out, and it's hot as hell,
they never see it.
But the minute they get a big thunderstorm
and it rains, she's out hunting.
A rainstorm in the cypress swamp
can create temporary watering holes
that attract thirsty small mammals
and the pythons hunting them.
You've got the spot pinpointed where we're gonna go?
Oh, yeah. I know exactly where to go.
Normally, we would stay at our camp
till the weather passes.
But we want to get out there
so when the weather breaks,
we got a small window of opportunity
to catch this giant female.
We wanna be out there.
You know what I'm saying?
Okay. As long as they're reliable sources,
I'm not gonna question you.
Is it 14 feet? Is it ten feet?
You know, game of telephone, things can get lost.
Either way, there's a snake that's moving,
and we're gonna try to go hunt this thing.
I'm really hopeful, though, it is a pregnant female.
We're getting close.
[thunder]
Forty-one miles away,
deep into the western Glades...
Zak, I hope you know where you're going,
'cause I ain't got a clue.
I ain't never been back here.
Zak Catchem
and his partner Bruce Mitchell
are taking a gamble on an area
that has never been tested by python hunters.
We gotta go way back that way,
so I hope you brought your walking shoes, Brucie.
-Yep. -The loggers back here
were shut down by conservationists
a long time ago, but they made
these wide open areas in the middle of the forest,
and it attracts a lot of grazing animals
like small rabbits, deer,
just a lot of python prey,
and these invasive pythons are going without a doubt
be perched up waiting at these little tiny oases
for their next meal.
Sure seems like we've been walking for miles.
This place is farther back than I thought.
Zak has secured permission
to hunt pythons on this untouched property
for one day.
To make it worth the long trip,
he's set a goal of five snakes.
It'll be worth it, you know.
I think it's worth a try anyway.
-Yeah. -There's tracks everywhere.
That's rabbits, that's squirrels, everything.
Yeah, and look, they're all going that way.
Yup. Dude, that's wide open.
There's gonna be a bunch of clearings like that.
Little rabbit, rabbit, rabbit.
-See that? -Yeah, another one.
Squirrel, too. Look.
A bunch of 'em, a bunch of 'em.
Look in the trees.
Oh, this is a snake's feast.
There's gotta be snakes all around the edge of this thing.
Let's split up, check the whole perimeter,
and then just circle back to it.
All right.
Meet back here, all right?
All right.
A trail in every damn crevice of this swamp.
So thick in there.
Oh-oh.
Zak! Zak!
-Come here! -I'm coming.
-What we got, what we got? -Watch it, watch it, watch it.
His tail's right here. Right here, Bruce. Come on.
Look, look, look. Right here, the head.
Aah! Uh!
Aah!
He's so... oh, God.
Whoa!
Aah! Damn!
His head's right here. I'm gonna grab it.
Oh! Aah!
God, this thing's moving.
-Can you pull him back? -I'm trying.
-Come on. -Oh, crap. Crap.
He's going up a tree.
Don't get hit, don't get hit.
Brucie, now's your chance.
-I got him, I got him. -Come on.
I got him, I got him,
-Nice. -I got him.
Damn. Dude.
This eight footer is not a breeder female
full of eggs, but catching a python this early is
a sign that this spot may turn out
to be a real honey hole.
-You got a sack? -Yeah, I got one.
-Hurry. -Nice and easy.
-Wait, wait, wait. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Wait, wait, wait. -Don't get bit.
-He's balling up. -Don't get bit.
-Ready? Two, three, go. -Yeah.
-Got him. -You're good?
-Yeah. -Sweet-- good eye!
Come on, Brucie.
We're doing great. I think it's a great spot
to find one big breeder female or two
that are looking for their last meal
before they sit on the eggs.
Look, look, look. Rabbit.
Another rabbit. You were right.
This spot's gonna be good, man.
Well, I think we're gonna find a lot of snakes
just posted up right on the edge.
I'm gonna hang this one up.
-Let's go with it. -Yeah.
Just remember where it's at.
Yeah, all right. Come on.
Got me pumped now.
Further south...
Come on, Ry.
Come on. You're slowing down on me.
With his snake hunting dog Riley
getting closer to retirement...
Let's go.
Dusty senses the need
to identify the heir apparent.
Riley's been my best friend
and my best snake hunting dog I've ever had
for the last ten years, man.
But she's getting slower. Let's face it.
We're all slowing down.
It's time to kind of bring in some new blood.
Just want you to know your daddy's got your back.
I hope you got mine.
Let's go get 'em. Come on.
To ensure a smooth transition,
Dusty decides to provide one of his other dogs
with valuable field experience.
Good girl. Come on, where's it at?
Well, I got my new puppy Biscuits, son.
She's gonna be my next snake dog.
We're fixing to do some on-the-job training, man,
some OJT.
Remember? This is what the smell is.
Right here. You got it?
See? Smell that?
That's what we want.
Got that bottle of snake oil, man.
It's concentrated, you know.
It's like the pheromones.
It's like the super essence of a snake, man, in a jar.
So every time old Biscuits gets distracted,
I'm gonna stop and let her smell the roses, son.
Once I get that stuff ingrained in her nostrils,
she gonna be on the track.
Pythons produce a foul-smelling secretion
known as musk.
It's used both as a defense mechanism
to deter predators,
and as a way to mark territory.
Musk is common in snake species
that don't produce venom.
Which way? Which way should we go?
I think she's on a trail, man.
I ain't never been this way before.
She's taking me to some new territory.
-[barking] -There it is!
Wait, Biscuits. Hold on.
Where'd that snake go?
Biscuits?
Biscuits!
Aah!
She's out there by herself looking for that python,
and she ain't barking.
I don't think she's ready for this.
That snake could be hunting her now.
I gotta... I gotta find the dog.
Yeah, I mean, I'm just gonna have to set out on foot
and keep circling like a freaking hog till I find her.
I mean, what else can I do?
Biscuits!
Farther into the cypress swamp...
-It's deep, but I wanna go. -Yeah.
Ashley "Deadeye" Jones
and her partner Kaylyn Glenn
are looking for a possible python honey hole
called The Gap.
I'm excited. I think working the perimeter,
maybe we can find an easy clear cut
that maybe no one has found before.
Yeah.
The Gap is a cypress dome,
and it's one of the largest ones that are out here,
and has tons of diversity.
But because it's been unexplored by a lot of people,
we don't really know what's in it.
We just know that it's huge
and it's got a high chance of having pythons.
A cypress dome is a dense pocket of bald cypress trees
in the swamps of south Florida.
Its name comes from the dome shape
of the tree tops, formed by large trees
growing in the center where the water is deeper,
and smaller trees toward the edges,
where it's shallower.
This place is really hard to get to.
It's really thick, and that only means
that there's not gonna be a lot of people.
I feel like these snakes are just moving on and adapting.
Once they feel any kind of pressure,
they're gonna move on.
Unfortunately that means for us
going to really thick, miserable, miserable places.
All right, I'm gonna stop it right here.
This is a perfect spot to get off.
Oh, this is beautiful in here.
Oh!
Oh, my gosh.
Cottonmouth!
As they're trying to reach The Gap...
-Aah! -Aah!
Whoa! Cottonmouth!
Ashley and Kaylyn run into a viper.
Whoa, check him out.
Look how mad he is.
Good eye, Ashley.
Look at those fangs ready to go.
Yeah, I reckon that wouldn't have been good.
That water moccasin
was perfectly capable of striking her.
It can be very, very, very dangerous.
It would end her season.
Water moccasin, commonly known as a cottonmouth,
is a highly venomous snake
that lives in and near fresh water
in the southeastern United States.
Its venom prevents blood from clotting,
which can lead to death.
When confronted, they bare their fangs,
but don't strike unless provoked.
-Imagine had you stepped on him. -Yeah, that's what I was
just thinking about. Follow the path
or work through the brush, and I'm glad
I didn't go that direction. Thanks for spotting that for me.
Yeah, I reckon that wouldn't have been good.
That would've stopped our hunting pretty quick.
-Let's work around this way. -Yeah.
See ya.
Safe today, buddy.
You're lucky you're not a python.
That's very true.
As the weather clears,
Troy and Tes reach the area
where the massive python they're after has been spotted.
I'm thinking maybe we should stop right in this area.
They always see her right on that edge.
Okay.
Right here.
It looks like the weather's clearing up.
Troy's got us coming out here looking for a large female
that has been moving after a rain.
Maybe she's hunting the animals
that are moving after the rain as well.
Maybe she's looking for new pockets of water.
Um, you know, whatever it is has got her moving,
so we're just gonna try to find her at this time.
-We gonna hunt that edge, okay? -All right.
Let's hunt the edge. Walk real slow,
because everything's wet. You ain't gonna hear nothing.
We just gotta look. Hopefully this weather
got her out and about.
I mean, that was a big enough storm.
So if she's hunting or she just needs to get out,
now's the time.
She's gonna be hungry.
It's thick in here.
I'm seeing that it kind of opens up in that direction.
If you wanna take that side and I'll go out this way.
Tes! Man, this is a paradise back here for snakes.
Yeah?
Tes, come here.
What, what you got?
Oh, it look good over here.
This tunnel. I like this tunnel.
You can see something's been using it.
A lot of places, they got spiderwebs or leaves.
This one's clean as a whistle.
Something has been using it.
Why you sitting down? You taking a break?
Come here.
Oh, no way. Hold on.
I've got my flashlight. I'm gonna look real quick.
Yeah, go ahead, look.
I felt it. I know there's something in there.
Do you see him, Tes?
Oh, heck, yeah. He is right here.
-How did you know to look here? -Listen,
let's don't panic, don't panic.
-Get your shovel. -Okay.
Can you start clearing this area off?
I'm gonna start clearing, yeah.
He's literally, like, right here.
I'm gonna go grab the shovel.
All right. I'm gonna start making this--
clearing our work area so we don't stick
all this in our eyes.
I mean, we see the snake at about three feet in there.
If I reach in there and touch him
and I can't pull him out.
I could make him go further back.
That's what I'm worried about.
This tunnel could go a hundred feet.
I wanna make sure we don't lose it.
I really think it's the giant female that we been looking for.
It look like a pretty big one.
We not about to let it get away. No way in hell.
Twenty-two miles east...
Come on, girl.
Dusty continues to search
for his snake hunting puppy in training...
Biscuits.
Biscuits!
I've been out here for hours and hours, man,
looking for Biscuits, man.
There just ain't no sign of her nowhere.
That's a rattlesnake.
Ooh... son.
Man, being out here, you really gotta
be on your toes, man, at all times, man.
That rattlesnake right there is the perfect example, son.
And this is why I'm so worried about Biscuits being out here.
One bite from this rattlesnake,
she'd be toast.
I gotta find her.
When I saw that rattlesnake like that,
that put some pep in my step, man.
I gotta come up with another idea
to get her out of the swamp, man,
before something happens to her.
You know, I can sit and holler and holler for her, man,
but she's gotta be near me to hear me.
I mean, the thing about dogs and, you know,
beagles especially, son,
they're driven by their stomach, man.
If I got some kind of foods cooking
that they really like, they'll come right to ya.
Now, if she don't come to this...
she ain't coming.
This is just a simple trap design, man.
It's been around for hundreds of years, man.
The cavemans was using it.
So the idea is, you know,
you take some kind of a box or something,
and you make a little stick sticking up.
You tie it to the thing,
and once they take that bait and pull that string,
bam, that little box is gonna fall right there,
she's gonna be right there, son, trapped like a cat.
I set the three traps out,
bait it with Biscuits' favorite food, hamburgers,
so now it's just a waiting game, man.
Come on, girl, I've got a treat for ya!
Come on.
Come on, girl!
Where you at?
Thirty miles east...
I'm feeling like we're getting really close.
Ashley and Kaylyn are trekking
in the direction of a cypress dome called The Gap.
The Gap sounds like a great place.
I wanna try it out,
but you're really working hard
for what either is gonna pay off really big
or be nothing at all and you've wasted your time.
-There's one right there. -Get him!
Look, he's coming around this side.
-I'm gonna grab his tail. -You got it?
Yup, I've got it. Come on this side.
Hold on, I'm coming, I'm coming.
He's going up the tree, he's going up the tree.
He's wrapped all the way around.
Aah! Oh...
This is complicated. I don't know
-how to get him to stop. -I mean, I can grab him.
He is all the way wrapped around.
On approach to The Gap...
He is all the way wrapped around.
Ashley and Kaylyn are fighting a tree climber.
-Oh, here he comes by your head. -He's really seething.
Okay, okay. Okay. Hold on.
Hold on. He's coming back this way.
-All right. -Whoo.
You're getting all tangled up.
Hold on, hold on, wait.
I got his body, I got his body.
Good! Good job, Ashley.
-Good job. -Oh!
Hell, yeah, I got his body, I got his body.
Don't let go of the head. Here, come on.
Bring it this way.
-Great job. -Hold on. I'm still shaking.
Okay. [laughs]
All right, hold on.
This eight-foot python
is not a pregnant female,
but capturing it on the far outskirts of The Gap
is a sign the area may indeed be a honey hole.
All right, now drop.
Put him in a little bit. There you go.
Got him?
-This is a good start. -Wow.
Perfect.
-Whoo. -All right.
This is a good spot for us finding a female python,
but it's really hard to get to.
It is thicker than almost anything else that's out here.
So it's gonna be difficult,
but all the good signs are there.
It's a good first start.
I think the next one you're gonna have to catch on your own.
Oh, my gosh.
Meanwhile...
-Bruce! -Hey!
After getting off to a hot start
in a new area, Bruce and Zak's hunt
has gone cold.
-See anything? -Nope.
-Me neither. -It's not looking good
for the home team right now.
Really gonna have to pull some luck
out of our you-know-what
if we're gonna find a snake right now.
We're running out of time.
Dang.
You see anything?
There's nothing back there.
I searched high and low, every little tiny crevice.
I don't know what to do.
I mean... there probably was snakes there,
but if they were, they were the smart ones.
I'm kind of disappointed with this situation.
You won't even see where a snake been through here.
Nothing. No sign of no snakes.
You know, it gets you down.
You're looking for snakes, but you're not finding them.
The bad thing is you're not taking nothing out of here,
and we on... we on a time limit here.
What is that, Zak?
It's the best. You ever eat one?
-Uh-uh. -It's so good.
-Really? -Yeah.
I don't trust you.
-Just try it. -No.
-You don't like it, spit it out. -No.
Native to southern Florida,
pond apples are an important food source
for many animals in the Everglades.
Turtles, birds, raccoons,
squirrels, and alligators
all feast on the fruit.
However, humans generally find them unappealing
because of their bitter taste.
-Look. Look at the shape of it. -Yeah.
It's a heart... it's because
-that's how much I love you. -[both laugh]
-You don't want it? -No, you can have it.
I'm not gonna eat nothing. Not here.
Here, pick a number, one or two.
Zero.
That's the right number.
Come on. Take a little bite.
You'll be all right.
You brought toilet paper, right?
-[laughing] -Not me. Nope.
Can you eat them? I heard you could.
Yeah. You should've eaten that one.
-No. -Maybe at home.
Somebody told me you gotta wait till they fall off
and hit the ground, and then you can eat them.
Not if you grab them first.
Put a little salt and pepper, diarrhea.
I don't have no salt and pepper,
and I don't want no diarrhea out here.
To the west,
with the help of a shovel from their buggy,
Troy and Tes try to gain access
to the huge python hiding underground.
It's like digging for treasure.
Watch. Oh, we are digging for treasure.
We should start busting through here.
Took us a while because there's a lot of rocks,
but we getting close.
So I really think this could be the big female.
I can't wait to find out.
I'm thinking any minute now we gonna bust through.
Oh, heck, yeah.
This can take a while, because if they go further back,
you gotta keep digging.
Any minute, we should start
busting through here.
-Oh, oh! -He's right back here.
-There he is, there he is. -I see him.
Troy, be careful, be careful.
OK.
At a snake hole...
He's right back here.
Troy is under attack.
I got him, but I don't know if I can pull him out.
He's a big one. Ow, he bit me!
Come on, Troy! Pull it, pull it, pull it, pull it.
Pull it, Troy! I can't believe it!
Ow! He bit me again, this mother [bleep]!
He bit me twice. He bit me twice.
-Yes! Yes! -Aah! Aah!
Troy, watch it, watch it, watch it.
Troy, hold him, hold him.
Troy! Don't let him go!
Don't let him go!
Aah!
-Aah! -Oh!
Do not let him back in.
Watch him.
Aah!
-Oh, God. -Aah!
-Troy, oh, my gosh. -He ain't biting me again.
Oh, my gosh, man.
-Oh, man, he got you. -Oh, he got me twice.
One there and one on the finger. This hurt, this one hurt.
He ripped me open, but that's all right.
[laughs]
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you, Jesus.
Troy stuck his hand in there,
but apparently landed it right on the snake's face
and got his fingers bit.
That's part of the reason you don't do it
if there's a venomous snake in there,
but we were confident it was a python,
and it just comes with the territory
when you're hunting these snakes.
We got him, that's all that matters.
At just over ten feet long,
this is not the giant they've been looking for,
but this python will still bring in
over $1,000 after processing,
and all evidence shows
it was just about to lay dozens of eggs.
She could definitely be...
holding something in here. She's big enough.
When they fat all the way to the end of the tail,
that means they got eggs in there.
Let's take her out.
-You got her? -Yup, I got her.
This might not be the snake we were after,
but we definitely caught a good prize snake.
I mean, she's pregnant.
No telling how many eggs she got in her,
and this is one less in the Everglades.
Whether it's the one we were after or not, it's a win-win.
Without that shovel and that light,
we would've never got her out of here.
Oh, we would not have her.
She probably would've bit you a few more times
if you stuck your arm down there.
Girl.
Meanwhile, further west...
Come on, Biscuits!
Dusty heads out to check the traps he set
in hope of capturing his runaway dog Biscuits.
Looking and calling and searching,
been around this place like a freaking hawk.
About fricking stepped on that rattlesnake.
I mean, what if she would've stepped on it right before me,
you know what I mean?
I set the three traps out,
bait it with Biscuit's favorite food, hamburgers.
It's been a few hours now, man.
It's time to go check these traps,
and I'm just praying that she's in one of them.
Oh, there's a trap.
Looks like it's half eaten, but the trap's not set.
Well, without the trap being set,
man, there's no way of knowing, you know,
if that was her eating the hamburger or something else.
I gotta find my fricking puppy, man.
It's like leaving a little kid
in the fricking jungle, you know?
She don't know about panthers yet.
She don't know about bears.
Now, that's all stuff that I'm supposed to teach her.
Biscuits! Hey!
Man.
Ooh, I got something. I got something!
I got something!
Ah, come on, Biscuits.
Oh, dang it.
The wind could've blew that over.
Dang it!
Biscuits!
Biscuits, come on!
Oh, it's set. The trap's set.
Oh!
Biscuits!
Hey, Biscuits!
[laughs]
Where's my baby been?
Oh, I've been looking everywhere for you!
You know, if Biscuits had a few more hunts under her belt,
you know, was a little bit older,
I mean, I might have a little more confidence.
She don't have the swamp smarts like Riley does, you know.
But I know she's gonna figure it out.
Oh, thank you, thank you.
Let's get out of here.
Shortly after,
with Biscuits safely home,
Dusty welcomes Zak and Bruce...
Hey, Dr. Crum!
We got you another one.
Who have brought the only python
they were able to capture for processing.
Dang, man, I'm not even done cleaning this one yet.
[laughs] We ain't gonna let you run out.
This year we're not catching that many snakes,
so we're bringing them all to Dusty's to make
the most products that we possibly can,
whether it be snake oil, purses, wallets,
boots, wristbands, shoes.
Dusty makes them all, and he's very, very thorough.
He's like a doctor or a surgeon
when it comes to cutting open these snakes.
You think it got anything in it?
That's an overgrown earthworm right there,
but look how long it is, too.
Solid nine feet plus.
It's crazy how quick they fatten up, too.
They get one big meal, and then boom,
they're twice as heavy. You know what I mean?
-Really? -Yeah. Look at all that fat.
-Yeah. -That's what Dusty has
over there. He's gonna make some oils
and stuff with that snake fat.
Oh, yeah? Work smarter...
-Yeah. -...not harder.
Hey, speaking of working smarter,
not harder,
Zak, how about you do the honors on this one?
No problem, gentlemen.
[laughs]
I played with a few snakes growing up.
-Oh, you're doing a good job. -Yes, sir.
Watch the butthole.
[all laugh]
If it's gonna rip, it's gonna rip there.
Ready? We're good...
Man, Dusty, you do such a good job.
-Look at this. Boom. -Go for it.
Right off the tail, all the way up
to the tail, look at that.
That's it, buddy.
Look how clean and white that meat is, man.
Well, we got one snake.
Hey, one is better than none.
And once Dusty's done with it,
he's gonna skin it up, tan it,
no telling what he's gonna make out of it.
And in the long run,
it's another snake out of the Everglades.
Man, that's the next white meat right there.
-I'm telling you boys. -I don't know.
This is like chewing on a rubber tire, dude.
I'll eat it. When we was growing up,
our meat didn't even have a first name.
It was just meat.
[all laugh]
Thirty miles northeast...
Can't even see past all this stuff.
Like, the sunlight in here, it's kind of confusing
to figure out really where we're at.
Ashley and Kaylyn are still trying to reach the core
of a cypress dome called The Gap,
which may be hiding a python honey hole.
We popped out there, but we need to be moving north.
Not with the sun. That's like more east.
I don't know. That cloud coverage messed me up.
We need to get to the cypress dome before nightfall hits.
The sun's starting to set really, really fast.
A lot of these trees are starting to look the same,
and we don't have a lot of time to waste
getting spun around in circles.
Feel like if I got a higher aerial view
of where we're at, I could see the sun better
and know what direction we're moving towards.
No, but how, though, you know?
Oh... climb a tree.
I don't see anything you could climb.
I mean, even if you could climb this one,
you can't see out past it.
No, because you got this tree blocking it.
Instead of making a couple more mistakes
and wasting five to ten more minutes,
we need to get up. We need to see the direction
that sun is setting, and that way we know
what direction our cypress dome is.
Look at this one.
Hold on. How are you gonna get your leg up in there?
Girl, you see how long my legs are?
-Kaylyn. -What?
I don't know if you need to do that.
If we don't figure out where we're going,
we're gonna be in trouble either way.
Life is all about calculated risks.
When you're out here as a team, I mean, you're only
as in good of shape as your partner is.
What I'm worried about is her falling
or something happening to her,
because then the burden falls on me literally.
I have to be able to get us out of here safely.
Kaylyn.
In search of The Gap...
I don't know if you need to do that.
Kaylyn goes out on a limb to get a better view.
That's slippery right there.
Oh, my gosh.
[crack]
Will you catch me if I fall, Ashley?
-Yeah, I gotcha. -[laughs]
You gotta just be a little crazy and have fun.
You gotta channel that inner child
and just see the tree and just say, hey,
I'm gonna go up and that's the only option.
It's good to know you're on my side
-and you're looking out for me. -Oh, yeah.
Oh, man, I'm already starting to see
a lot better up here.
The clearing's right there, and I can see the cypress dome
-that we're working towards. -Right past these trees?
Yeah, way off in the distance.
I now see, standing out amidst everything else,
our cypress dome. It's huge.
It has just a towering presence to it.
Can we get to it?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, thank God.
See? Sometimes my crazy ideas work out for us.
Okay.
I feel so much better.
We just saved ourselves.
There you go. Good job.
Let's go. All right, so our path is right through here.
We're gonna be bushwhacking some more still,
but I know where we're headed now.
Perfect.
Into the night...
-Tes! -Yeah?
Hey, come here.
Troy and Tes take a meal break.
Quitting on me?
No, I'm not quitting, but I'm tired.
I need a ten-minute break. [laughs]
Big tree fall hard?
Come sit down.
We been out here since 2:00 this evening,
Oh, man, it's all day, all night.
No, I know.
Oh, what you got?
A snack. What you got?
I got what you got. [laughs]
I'm getting tired. We been out here
all day and all night.
-You look it. -Give me a bite.
Okay, well, I gotta ration you.
-Oh, you gotta ration me now? -Mm-hmm...
-You just get... -Let's see what... [laughs]
Just a little one. There you go.
-Jesus. -Don't eat it all at once.
Be careful. You have to savor that.
I need a magnifying glass to see that thing.
What goes around comes around
in the form of really small beef jerky.
That's gonna get lost in my teeth, between my teeth.
Better chew carefully, get it all.
Give me the damn bag over here.
You're lucky I brought a snack. My goodness.
Yeah, thank you, thank you. That was nice of you.
-I'd be eating whatever this is. -Lemme tell you something...
Marsh onions or something, I don't know.
I'm supposed to be babysitting you,
but you've been doing a good job of babysitting me.
Listen, I snack and I snack hard,
so I'm not gonna go at any point in time without food,
which is at your benefit, so you're welcome.
Good job. You've been doing a good job. Appreciate it.
Gotta keep you running.
[laughs] All right, if you insist.
Come on.
See, there we go.
-Come on. -Aw, man.
You're such a nice man.
As night falls over the Glades...
Do you see anything that's shining back at you?
Not yet.
Ashley and Kaylyn have reached The Gap,
but no pythons yet.
It's taken us a few hours to find The Gap.
It is not for the faint of heart,
but I'm feeling really positive about it.
This is a good spot for finding pythons
because they've been found before,
and I'm really confident we're gonna see something.
Ashley, Ashley, stop, stop, stop, stop.
Do you hear that?
Something's moving right there.
In The Gap, Ashley and Kaylyn
have a python in their sights.
Ashley, we got a python!
-Where? -Right here, right here.
Get it!
I touched it, I touched it.
-Ow! Ow! -Where? Where?
It went right through the trees.
-I don't see it. -Right there.
Right in front of you, right in the bush. Underneath you.
-Where? Where? -Got it, got it.
You got it?
-Aah! -Get it, get it, get it.
Oh, I almost lost it.
Sneak right behind him.
-Oh, God. -Okay
-Whoa! -Whoa! Oh!
Okay, she's a little feisty one.
All right, now I don't feel comfortable doing that.
Ugh.
Come on.
I got it.
There, get his head, get his head behind there.
-You got him? -Yup, I got him.
Okay, I'm just moving him a little bit.
There. Okay. Ready to get him?
I'm so scared right now.
Come on.
Good job.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
-Wrapping? -Yeah.
There you go. Move his body that way,
That way he doesn't wrap around you.
There you go. Okay?
This nine foot female may be carrying eggs
and will bring over $900 after processing.
-With two captured pythons... -He's pissed.
The Gap may be a honey hole worth coming back to.
These snakes are just moving on and adapting.
Once we get to a certain area
and they can feel any kind of pressure,
they're gonna move on.
-Whoo! -That'll wake you up!
[laughing]
This place is really hard to get to
and hard to get through, but we're definitely
gonna come back before they move on.
That'll get your heart pumping, having to move that fast.
I won't even need any blood pressure medicine.
Just come out here and do this every now and then.
Yeah. Your heart's gonna be healthy by the end of this.
Over at Dusty's...
What's up?
-Hey! -Hey.
So do you think that this one's pregnant?
I don't know. She's fat enough for sure.
We're not going for getting the biggest python
or the most pythons.
We're going for the largest impact.
But thankfully with Dusty, we're gonna be able
to still make a good amount of income,
and I'm really excited to see what he can do.
-Snake incoming. -All right.
How do y'all expect me to go hunting
when you keep bringing these snakes for me?
We keeping you busy?
That's a nice one, too, boy.
Ready to see the inside of it.
Whew.
Ashley and Kaylyn make a great team, you know,
Hunting these big, big pythons, you know,
but they got it handled, man.
More power to them.
Snaking ain't easy.
Look, look, look, Ashley. Look right here.
-What? -Look at that.
-Is that the eggs? -I'm pretty sure, right?
-Those are eggs. -The eggs, yup.
Good thing we caught her right before she laid these.
If you all would've been a week later,
it'd have been too late.
More pythons out there.
I got 11.
Twelve.
So what's that? You do the math.
-Twenty-three. -Twenty-three.
-Twenty-three? -Yup.
Think how much of our native wildlife
y'all just saved by catching this snake.
I mean, that's why this is so fricking important.
Everybody that's out here hunting these pythons, you know,
we're all doing this because we care about the Glades.
We're on the same team.
-Wow. -High five!
-Leaving me hanging there! -That's a good one.