Tom Rahill has become something of a legend for capturing snakes with his team. He was hooked after he tracked and captured his first Burmese in 2008.
During this basking season, Rahill hopes to capture as many Burmese as possible. The snakes aren’t venomous, but they pose a major threat to the ecosystem since they have no natural predators in Florida.
“I’ve supervised hundreds and hundreds of captures and over 300 captured personally,” Rahill said.
Image: Wikipedia
As successful as Rahill has been, it’ll take a lot more than that to solve the issue of the Burmese population, believed to have been caused by pet owners ditching their snakes once they grew too large.
With females having the ability to lay over 100 eggs, it’s possible there’s a large population out there.
“There could be tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of snakes. We just don’t know,” said Kristen Penny Sommers an employee of the Florida Conservation Commission.
Rahill and his team, the “Swamp Apes,” will be featured on Animal Planet, focusing on their attempts to rid the Everglades of the infestation.
