HOLEY LAND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, Fla. (AP) — It's after midnight when the windshield fogs up on Thomas Aycock's F-250 pickup truck. He flashes a low
Thomas Aycock, a contractor with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, drives along a levy searching for invasive Burmese pythons, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in the Florida Everglades. HOLEY LAND WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, Fla. — It’s after midnight when the windshield fogs up on Thomas Aycock’s F-250 pickup truck. He flashes a low smile as he slowly maneuvers through the sawgrass, down dirt roads deep in the Florida Everglades.
Aycok loves snakes. He’s also passionate about preserving the Everglades and understands the “greater ecological issue with these pythons,” a prolific apex predator threatening Florida’s native snakes and mammals. The competition is designed to raise awareness and has succeeded on that score, attracting celebrities and inspiring reality television shows.
“You’re not going to make a living doing this full-time. There’s no way you could do it,” Aycock said. The group’s founder, Tom Rahill, and two other Swamp Apes followed behind as an Associated Press team rode along with Aycock and another Swamp Ape member during this year’s challenge. But Burmese pythons, constrictors that have no natural predators and can swallow animals whole, aren’t always calm.
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