In the war of man vs. python...
Oh, she's ready to go, boy, like a jack-in-the box.
Aah!
The hunters continue
their relentless pursuit of the invaders...
He's right here! He's right here! He's right here!
Straight this way!
But other threats...
He's right here, Bruce!
Be careful, Bruce! Aah!
lie in wait...
Aah! Pee-wee!
-Look at him. -Pull him back!
and are ready...
-Come on, grab him. -I can't, man.
-to strike! -Aah! Aah!
-Aah! -Oh!
Nice python. Whoa!
Along a remote buggy trail...
I've never tried anything like this before.
I really don't think there's nothing to worry about.
King of the Swamp Troy Landry and his partner Pickle Wheat
are responding to an urgent call for help
from a python expert.
How you doing, buddy? You been all right?
Yeah, I've been good, been very good.
-Nice to meet you, sir. -Yeah, likewise.
Dr. Tim is a friend of mine.
I met him through Bill a few years back.
He's a full-time biologist, and they put chips in snakes.
And they monitor these snakes.
Judas snakes they call them.
Judas snakes are male pythons
implanted with transmitters during mating season.
This device allows researchers to track their location.
They call it a Judas snake because it's a traitor snake.
And when it finds a female to mate,
it actually attracts a whole lot of other males,
and then we can move in and catch them all.
Pretty smart.
I've got a problem.
Basically, we've got a Judas snake
that hasn't moved for two weeks.
So that's where you guys come in.
And you guys are gonna hopefully
be able to track it down.
First, we need to know if it's alive or dead.
What if we find the snake and he's dead?
It's got a microchip which is for our research.
All that data is super important for us.
We need to get it back.
All right, buddy. We gonna do our part.
You know how to operate that thing?
So, basically, the way this works
is you just turn it on here.
It's a UHF radio and what it does is
once you get closer to the snake,
it will start pinging.
It will actually narrow it right down
to pretty much a couple of feet.
So you'll be right on it.
Myself, I think it's dead.
If it hasn't moved in two weeks,
unless it would've killed something real big
and he's staying there until he eats the whole thing
and devours it and keeping other snakes away.
But really in my heart, I think the big snake is dead.
Hey, Doc, I forgot to ask you.
What if we find him and he's okay, if he's alive?
Just leave it.
But any other snakes around that you find,
then definitely if you can catch them, that would be a big help.
All right, buddy.
-Good luck. -Bye, Dr. Tim.
Is it showing anything?
-Nothing yet? -Yeah, I'm listening to it.
You can hear it beeping. It beeps when it gets closer.
I hope we can find it.
Oh, yeah.
I wish we could find all the snakes like this.
31 miles north...
It's pretty thick in here.
You can say that again.
Veteran python hunter Bill Booth
and his partner Tes Lee
are on a mission to explore a brand-new area
that is rarely hunted.
You've got enough experience now.
I wanna kinda split up a little.
Yeah, I'm all for that.
I'm always looking for an excuse to go to a new area,
and I located this spot that's pretty heavily wooded.
And I very rarely hear of anyone hunting pythons out there.
So, I was looking at the aerial.
There's a canal or water system that comes in,
and it looks like maybe about a mile that way.
So if you take this side and maybe I take that side
and we converge at the end.
See that trail kind of right through there?
-Yeah, yeah. -That'll lead to that canal.
All right, and you're heading off that way?
-Yeah, I'm gonna go this way. -All right.
So if you need anything, you just yell.
All right, same to you.
This is a new area. Neither of us have been here.
It doesn't sound like a lot of people hunt this area anyways,
so this could be a bountiful day for us.
I mean, being out in these woods that I'm not familiar with,
it definitely could cause a problem.
What I like to do when I'm hunting--
my dad taught me--
is you just kinda break your palm fronds
in a similar direction of where you're walking.
You can make a path on where you're going.
Growing up hunting with my dad,
he taught my siblings and I how to mark a trail
so that if you get turned around,
you'll know where you're going or at least where you came from.
I'm very, very grateful for that knowledge and that upbringing,
because years later,
never thought I'd be out here python hunting.
They're all coming into play,
so it's pretty cool to have that in my back pocket.
I've never been here.
I've just come here because I saw it on a satellite
and just wanna check it out.
You know, it's all about exploring and finding new areas.
There's not a lot of people that come out here.
There's one right there laying under these palmettos.
Thing's getting ready to shed, too.
Uh-oh! He's a lively one.
Uh-uh.
Good Lord.
Uh!
Oh, God.
Oh, I wish I had my helper.
This is how you get bit.
I gotta get him worn down. Oh!
I got his tail. I see ya.
Aiy!
Hunh!
I gotta wear him down.
Aah! I got you, bastard.
This seven-footer is a good sign
the area may indeed be a python hotspot.
I've only got one bag, but I can fit a couple in there,
especially if they're not giants.
Anytime you separate, there's an advantage to it.
You cover more ground when you split up,
but then there's also disadvantages if you get lost
or if you get a big python
that takes two or three people to handle.
I gambled on Tes and her ability to navigate.
All right.
Too far from the buggy now,
so I'm gonna have to carry this thing with me.
Eight miles south,
Dusty ventures to a remote area he hasn't visited in a while.
Oh, yeah, baby, back in the holler.
Yeah, today we're fixing to go way back
to one of my favorite honey holes, son,
the old holler.
This place is just a magical, magical place, you know.
Kids nowadays, they think the holler
is some rap song in their car.
No, I'm talking about the real deal, buddy.
This is one of my favorite spots, man, of all time,
getting back in here.
Yeah, this place is just teeming with wildlife, you know.
I look forward to getting out there.
There's more abundance of wildlife there
than I've seen anywhere in the Glades, man.
It's just full of all kind of small mammals.
You know, birds, frogs, it's a healthy ecosystem.
Man, frickin' gets thick in here, huh?
Think that's all we're gonna be able to go, boys.
That's as far as this path's gonna take us.
Gonna be foot soldiers the rest of the way. Whoo.
Just back through these woods here,
get back in that holler.
Son, get back in this holler, look, man--
it's all frickin' dried up.
This place is normally popping with all kind of stuff,
frogs and birds.
I pull up on the scene, son, and it's crickets, son.
I don't know what happened.
Like, it ain't like it used to be, man.
Just a year ago, there was frogs.
Everything's gone.
This was like one of the loudest places I've been.
It's frickin' church mouse in here.
I don't see nothin', no birds, rabbits,
no frickin' squirrels.
No frogs, no toads.
No snakes either, man.
It's like--It's like down south, man,
the part where the frickin' snakes done ate everything
and moved on, son.
I gotta go find some sort of life,
some sound, some sign of something.
Whew.
Further north, veteran hunter Bruce Mitchell
and Florida native Zak Catchem
are trying to solve a mystery.
We didn't find anything today.
We're out here at prime snake hunting grounds, and it's quiet.
I'm not seeing anything, no forage, no prey items,
no feces or evidence of anything walking around out here.
It's pretty crazy.
As storm clouds gather,
the hunters resort to flashlights
to help spot pythons.
The problem is, they could be under piles of stuff like this.
You'd think there'd be one there for sure, man.
I'll tell you what.
I'm surprised we haven't found at least one.
Let's go by the river over here
and check some of these holes and stuff in them banks.
A lot of this, you walk for hours and hours
and you don't see nothin'.
But you gotta look everywhere for them.
I mean, they up in the trees, all over on the ground.
There ain't no telling
what you gonna pull out of one of these holes.
There's just nothing out here, man.
Whoa!
This bad boy's hollowed out pretty good.
Oh! There's one right here, man!
-You sure? -Yeah, I'm sure.
I'm looking right at it. Check him out.
Watch your face, man. Be careful, Bruce.
Grab that. His head's up there.
Grab his tail, grab him, grab him.
-Don't be spook-- -Ow!
Oh, my God, you're fast!
Oh!
-Come on, grab him! -I can't, man.
You don't see his head right there?
I see his head right there. Grab his body.
Grab him. That's what you gotta do.
Oh, my God, dude.
You got this, Bruce, come on.
Dude! Man, you cannot grab this thing.
You see how fast he is.
Wait, wait! Grab his tail and move him.
-I think I can grab it. -There you go, there you go.
Oh!
Yeah, bro. Come on.
Come on! Whoa!
Watch him, watch him.
Pull him over there so he don't go in that hole!
-Watch him. -Oh, he's going in that hole.
-He's going back down! -He's going back there!
-Ah! -You got him?
He went back in that hole. Yeah.
There's holes all over the place.
-Pull him out, pull him out! -You got him?
-Whoa! -There you go.
Dude, watch him.
Aah!
I had him.
Be careful, Bruce.
Whoa!
-You got him, Bruce? -Yeah, I got him.
-You gotta stretch him out. -By his head?
Man, he's trying to bite me, you, and everything else.
Come on, he's looking at me, man. Grab him, grab him!
Come on.
Whoa!
I can't hold him, man. You grab him.
Aah!
I got him.
Dude. [laughs]
That thing didn't wanna do nothing but bite.
Capturing this python in its burrow
has given Zak and Bruce a clue.
After finally finding this snake in a hole,
it makes a lot of sense.
The snakes are just hiding out.
So we're gonna try to excavate
some of these dens and holes that everything makes
and see if we can find some snakes in between.
Come back here with the shovel
and dig up every hole that's out here.
I'm with you.
31 miles northeast...
Is it showing anything? Nothing yet?
Troy and Pickle struggle to get a signal from the Judas snake.
I got the job of tracking and listening to the GPS
and waving this receiver out of the side of the buggy.
My arm is starting to feel like a noodle,
and I have this thing plugged to my ear
because the buggy's so loud, I can't really hear.
I'm hoping to hear a beep soon.
Hold on, hold on, stop, stop!
Heard something?
Yeah, hold on.
Oh, yeah.
-You hear it? -Yeah, yeah.
Straight this way.
I just heard this beep.
It's straight in this direction,
which is exactly the coordinates that the doctor gave us.
In that direction, huh?
Listen, listen, listen. [clicking]
Oh, look, look!
Right here, right here, right here!
Watch him, Pee-wee, watch him!
Oh, my God.
Look at the size of that thing. It's a big one, huh?
-Watch him. -Yeah. Holy crap.
Watch him. Try to grab the tail, try to grab the tail.
Grab it, grab it!
Oh, my God.
Whoo! That's a big one. Be careful.
Okay. I'm not letting her go.
Be careful, be careful.
Gotta wear him down, wear him down.
Whoo! We cornered over here.
Pull him back!
Why you giving him all that slack?
Uh! Uh!
-Whoo! -Why you letting it go?
Aah! Oh!
Get her, get her!
Oh!
Look, there's your chance. Her head's open.
Yeah!
You all right? You all right?
Yeah, yeah, I'm okay, I'm okay.
Didn't hurt yourself when you fell?
No, I'm okay.
This seven-foot male python is not the Judas snake,
but they seem to be going in the right direction.
That's a small little male right there,
and he was headed
straight towards where that signal's coming from.
Oh, no, this ain't him, but you're right.
He's going in the same direction.
-Right. -You heard the signal, yeah.
You know, it makes you think.
Is there some hot females in that area
that this snake was going that way?
Or was it just a coincidence,
he was just trying to get away from us?
We don't know.
Let's go. We gonna keep going straight in that direction.
Okay.
14 miles south,
Tes is scouting a new area.
Being in the woods where I don't really know where I'm going,
that alone is a little nerve-wracking.
Being under all this shade,
it's definitely gonna get darker in here
quicker than normal sunset.
Oh...
God, this blends right in with the ground.
Man. Hmm...
Oh, his head's right there.
Shoot.
Man. Aah!
He's trying to get his teeth in anything.
Aah!
Bill, are you anywhere close?
I've got one!
This is when hunting apart
and not with your partner gets difficult.
All right, buddy, just gotta tire you out.
Uhh!
Oh!
Ahh.
Gonna get you in the bag.
This is a great catch for Tes,
but hunting alone carries its own challenges.
Carrying a snake through the woods all day
when you don't know where you're going,
it gets a little tiring.
Oh, you have gotta be kidding me.
[laughs] I can't believe I have found this many.
Come on, buddy.
Oh!
Oh, yup.
Oh, God, this guy is all over the place.
Hey, Bill!
Bill, where are you?
This one's all over the place!
Aah! Okay, there you go.
Aah!
You get ballsy trying to catch these things,
and that's when they bite you.
Aah!
God.
Gol. Whew.
Whew, Bill is not gonna believe this.
These two pythons will bring in more than $600,
but the weight is wearing on the solo hunter.
This bag is getting way, way too heavy.
I'm not even gonna be able to carry it.
Eight miles south,
Dusty can't believe what has happened
in one of his favorite places in the Glades.
I don't believe this place.
It's like a frickin' ghost town in here, man.
This place used to be full of all kind of stuff.
I don't see nothin'.
I don't even see snakes.
It's like they ate everything and left.
The holler ain't what it used to be, man.
That fast, wow.
-[ribbit] -Wait, wait, wait, wait.
You hear that? That's a frog,
That's a frog. Listen.
[ribbit]
It stopped. I don't hear it no more.
There he is, boy. Look, look, look.
Holy cow!
Look at him, son.
I think that's why he's sitting there.
He just digested that meal.
Yeah, see, he just finished eating.
That's why he's curled up.
That sucker's so big, son, it ate every last frog in here.
Ahh. Oh!
Whoo!
That sucker's on fire, boy.
Whoa!
See how they get when they just had a meal?
Defensive.
Oh!
Whoa!
Oh!
Whoo!
Aah!
Watch it, son.
Oh!
Whoo!
Talk to me, sweetheart.
Whoa!
Oh!
Boy, she's ready to go, boy, like a jack-in-the-box.
Gotcha!
Aah!
Whoo!
This eight-footer at the edge of the holler
is a sign that the snakes are moving fast.
Whoo!
Yeah, I'm starting to hear the edges of wildlife.
You pushed them all the way here,
and you just keep pushing them
and pushing them further, don't you?
Uh-huh. Maybe I'm on the right path now.
That snake was on fire, bud.
Whew!
Mm. [frogs croaking]
That's the frogs out there in the distance.
You hear them?
I started hearing frogs and toads and stuff
out in the distance,
and that's the key, son.
I'm headed that way.
I'm just gonna cut straight through here,
keep hitting to that sound.
Meanwhile, Bill scours the woods,
hoping to find a new python honey hole.
Oh, it's starting to get dark.
It's thick.
I've got one snake in four hours.
Starting to second guess my decision here.
I hope Tes has got a snake or two
to make it worth our while.
The sun started going down a little bit.
I need to start thinking about looking for Tes,
so I figured I'd keep heading to the north
and see if I can cut her off and find her.
There's a canal that runs all along this strip of land,
and I told her to stay by that canal,
so we gotta be reaching the end by now.
I hope she's okay.
That sun's going down fast.
[chuckles]
Look right here.
Look at that thing blending right into that log.
I got it.
Watch out.
Where's my helper when I need her?
Oh, gosh.
He's launching after me.
Oh!
Uh! Watch out.
Now's my chance.
All right.
It's one more snake that I didn't have
and one less frickin' predator in the Everglades.
I'm glad I got my lights with me
because that sun's going down fast.
Tes!
12 miles northeast...
Man, I don't know.
Nothing, Pee-wee? No signal?
Nothing.
I haven't heard anything in a while.
Troy and Pickle have lost the radio signal
from the Judas snake.
That's straight ahead.
That's the coordinates that's punched in here.
But still, if I'm not getting a reading...
We get a signal or two, a little beep or two,
and we'd go in the direction we thought it was going in.
Then we'd lose signal.
So I'm hoping we can find it.
We're gonna have to get right close
to be able to pick him up.
Listen, listen, listen. [clicking]
-You hear it? -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-You hear it? -Pee-wee, Pee-wee.
Go, turn it, turn it a little bit.
-Right there. -Right there.
In the right direction now, Pee-wee.
Finally.
Keep going right straight that way.
Oh, Pee-wee, Pee-wee, over there!
Hurry, hurry, hurry!
Ooh, [bleep].
Look at it, look at it, right there!
-Oh, God. -Hurry up!
Oh, Pee-wee.
-Holy crap. -Oh, my God.
Watch him, watch him, Pee-wee!
Oh, Pee-wee!
-Look at him. -Watch him, Pee-wee!
Pull him back!
Pull him!
Pee-wee, look. Right there.
Watch him, Pee-wee!
On the trail of a Judas snake...
-Aah! -He don't like that.
Troy and Pickle have cornered a male python.
-Wear him out. -Watch it, watch it.
Eee. All right, Pee-wee, watch him.
-Oh! -Oh, man.
Okay, look, I got his attention. Ay-yi-yi!
Damn!
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.
Hold it, hold it, hold it!
I got it.
This vicious serpent
isn't the Judas snake they're looking for,
but at least they've regained the signal.
-Man! -Dude, that's a big snake.
I don't know if you noticed this,
but all these snakes are headed right that way.
That's another male, huh?
No.
This ain't him.
It's not the Judas snake, unfortunately.
We've caught a lot of snakes today,
and every single one of them is a male snake
and they all seem to be traveling in the same direction.
What?
Straight in the coordinates that the doctor gave us.
We got more snakes
than I think we're gonna be able to carry out,
and we didn't even get to where we going.
Well, we got that one in the bag.
You heard it? It beeped?
[beep] Yup, there she goes.
-It beeped again? -Yeah, come on, let's go.
As night falls...
Don't go too far away.
If you find a solid hole with something in it,
we're gonna need both of us to get whatever's in there out.
After finding a python burrowed in a tree trunk,
Zak and Bruce are changing their strategy.
We just gonna go from hole to hole,
and we got this shovel now,
so I'm thinking we can dig them out.
It'll be a lot easier.
Look how far this hole goes right here, man.
See anything?
No, but it goes on forever.
Only thing I know, I got the shovel,
so I guess I'm gonna be the digger.
Zak's got the gloves. He's gonna be the grabber.
They got me scared to stick my hand in anywhere.
-Bruce. -What?
Here we go. That's what we're looking for, dude.
-What? -Money hole.
Right down there. That's a python, huh?
Yeah, I see him, man.
That's his skin right there.
I know. We're gonna have to dig behind him
because the hole might go back further.
We're gonna have to get on the back side of him.
You watch him. I'm gonna get over here and start digging.
Exactly.
[hissing] Oh, yeah, you hear him?
Yeah, he's hissing.
Yeah, you're pissing him off.
He's pushing out this way.
Keep digging.
-Pick this up. -Pull that log up.
Go ahead. There you go.
-There you go. -There you go.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
Oh, there he is, there he is!
I can reach him, I can reach him. Watch out.
Look, look, look.
-The earth is moving, dude. -I know.
I don't know where his head's at.
Oh, my God, this is crazy.
Where's his head at, dude?
I don't know, but I know one thing...
Let me see the shovel.
...It sure is a lot easier
for me to watch you stick your hand in there
than me sticking mine in there.
That's his tail right there! Stop!
That's his head. Grab him!
I got him.
I got his head, dude.
[laughs] Come on, come on.
Oh, my God!
-Dude. -[laughs] How about that?
How about that one, Bruce?
I ain't never done this before.
I ain't never hunted with a shovel.
[laughs]
But if it's working, it's working.
Capturing this eight-footer with their unusual approach
may be just the beginning.
I'll tell you what.
It's another thing standing up
and trying to grab a snake from being on your knees
and trying to grab it out of a hole.
It's a whole different animal.
That thing had all its eyes and all its attention right on me.
Yeah, hang the snake and if we find the holes,
we'll find the snakes, dude.
That's the plan.
Way to go, Brucie. Nice digging.
All right, man.
Eight miles south,
Dusty has caught only one python so far,
and he hopes the sounds of the wildlife will guide him.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [wildlife sounds]
Getting warmer now, son. You hear that?
That's what I'm talking about. That swamp's coming alive now.
Yeah, finally getting out here,
and I rolled up in this frickin' orchestra of frogs, man.
They're singing all around me. This is the spot.
Those frogs are starting to sing, boy.
I'm getting right in this good spot.
Yeah.
With this much food source around,
this has gotta be where the snakes are.
This many frogs and this stuff going on, son,
this is where the snakes are.
Whew.
Man, them frogs are happy in here, son.
It's like a sea of ribbits.
Oh, dang, he's got a frog...
and he's wrapped up!
He's got a freaking frog wrapped up.
[ribbit, ribbit] Look at that.
-[ribbit] -Look at that. Dang, son.
Oh!
Holy cow, boy.
Oh!
Whoa!
Oh!
Gotcha!
Easy, killer, easy, killer.
Not today, hey?
That little frog gets a pass.
This seven-footer brings in $200,
but saving just one of the native frogs feels even better.
That's old frog's get out of jail free card right there, son.
Whoo.
[laughs]
Just at dinnertime, huh?
We got this big foreign invader in our swamps,
and it's gobbling up everything.
Every snake that we take out of this ecosystem right here,
we're saving thousands and hundreds of mammals.
Whew.
There you go.
Ooh, yeah.
Whoo! The old holler has paid off again, son.
It's never let me down.
Guess I found where all the food moved to.
There ain't much food left in here.
Snakes are putting a hurting down in here, boy.
[thunder rumbles]
To the east, in a possible new honey hole,
Bill and Tes have yet to reunite.
All right, I really need to find Bill.
That's the name of the game right now,
because all these snakes are getting heavy and it is dark.
Hey, Bill?
Bill?
Oh, come on.
You've got to be kidding me.
Holy crap.
Oh, [bleep].
Aah!
Bill, where you at?
Whoo.
Oh!
Hey, Bill, where you at?
I'm not gonna be able to take all these snakes. Aah!
-Bill? -Where you at?
I'm over here.
I've got one, and he's pissed.
I'm here, I'm here.
Oh!
God, am I glad to see you.
Bill, I can't fit this in my bag.
Oh, my God.
Bill, I have so many snakes,
I don't know what I was gonna do with this one.
My God. How many you got?
I've got three in there.
How many did you get?
-[laughs] Two. -Okay.
I was kinda starting to doubt this.
I wasn't sure that it was gonna be very good.
I didn't have time to doubt. [laughs]
I probably worry more about her than I should.
But, you know, I don't wanna see anything happen to her.
She ends up doing pretty darn good.
It sucks splitting up,
but if we cover ground, look how many snakes we got.
I know, right?
-Oh, my gosh. -Yeah.
With a haul of six pythons and $1,500,
Bill and Tes can add these woods
to their list of honey holes.
Man, we got six?
What a frickin' day, huh?
I'll take it.
Yeah, I'm ready to quit.
Eight miles south,
Zak and Bruce have captured six burrowing pythons
and are looking for more.
Check this out.
What is it? A hollow log?
I don't know if it's hollow or not.
Bruce and I are plucking snakes
out of pretty much every burrow we find.
I'd say maybe every other burrow
has a snake in it at this point.
So it's a great spot to find snakes.
There's nothing in that one over there, huh?
-No, nothing. -You sure?
-No, it's empty. -All right.
Let's check this one. Ready?
What you got? Yeah, go ahead.
I don't see nothin' here.
-Bruce, his tail! -Is that a snake?
No, it's a big old lizard, dude!
Cover it up! Cover the hole, cover the hole!
Cover the hole now, now! Cover the hole!
-Cover the hole now! -I got it, I got it.
-What is it? -It's a lizard.
I thought it was a snake tail.
It's a monitor lizard, dude.
-You sure? -Aah! Yeah!
Don't let him get you.
All right, Bruce, are you ready?
-Yeah. You got his tail? -Yeah.
Oh, my God!
-Dude. God! -Oh, my God!
-Look at that. -Hold on, hold on.
This thing is mean, dude.
This thing isn't gonna wanna come out!
-Oh, my goodness. Hold on.
Watch, his head's gonna pop out.
He is pushing hard, dude.
Hold on, hold on.
Damn it. Aah! Watch out!
Be careful.
Be careful! Be careful, Bruce!
Be careful, Bruce! Unh!
Bruce and Zak battle a mean lizard.
He's right here, Bruce! Aah! Bruce!
Hurry up, Bruce, get the bag out!
How are we gonna get him in there?
Bruce, be careful. Distract him.
Keep it open. Keep the bag open.
How? How? Whoa!
Don't let him bite me.
I got him.
-Whoa! -Yeah.
Damn, damn!
Whoo-hoo. Aah.
Dude, I don't like these critters.
Be careful, Bruce.
Me?
Get him off of me, dude!
You got him?
-You got his head? -Barely.
Put him in.
Aah. Hold on.
Head first. He's biting on the sack, dude.
Let go. All right.
You gonna have to pick him up.
Pick him up and just throw him in that hole.
I got him, I got him.
-Ready? -Yeah.
Close it up, close it up, close it up!
-He done turned around. -Oh, my God.
Dude, what the hell is that?
That's a monitor lizard.
Let me get my headlamp.
Capturing this Nile monitor lizard
won't bring any bounty,
but removing this invasive predator from the Everglades
will save countless native animals.
-You all right? -Yeah, I'm all right.
Dude, that thing was bad to the bone.
I was scared to death of this thing.
A Nile monitor lizard is an apex predator.
This thing is a giant lizard,
kind of like a Komodo Dragon, except a lot faster.
These things get huge, over five feet long easily,
and they're heavy and very powerful with talons, teeth.
These things are down here in South Florida.
They're invasive as invasive can be.
They're out here, and they're established.
That thing will tear up everything out here.
-They eat everything. -Everything.
Don't matter what it is, they eat it.
Everything, dude.
The only thing that could take that down
is an alligator, maybe a python.
That thing will tear you up. You saw that thing?
I couldn't even put my hand on it.
You know my grip, dude.
I be throwing alligators around like nothing.
That thing got out of my death grip, dude, even with gloves.
I don't believe a python would eat one of these.
Let's just bring this back to the truck.
Way too strong.
Well, go get my shovel and we gonna get out of here, dude.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
I had enough of this.
We got a ton of snakes,
and a monitor lizard was the cherry on top of our sundae.
It's been a great night, and I'm happy to head home
before this thing tears apart our bag and tears apart us.
-Oh! -There's too much out here.
I know. I ain't sticking my hands in no more holes.
14 miles northeast...
You hear this thing?
Troy and Pickle are hot on the trail of the Judas snake.
[laughs]
That thing's about to blow up, Pee-wee.
After all day looking,
we got to where it was getting dark
and the signal was getting stronger.
It's going right to this tree right here.
-Huh? -Right here.
Sure enough, we got to this big 300-year-old oak tree,
and you could see the snakes been going in and out.
Oh, yeah, look right here.
Look at the hole, look at the big hole.
Yes.
Give me that stick.
-What you doing? -Give it here.
Look, it's all wore out, the trail.
They've been going in and out so much,
look, there's no more grass.
You're gonna get bit.
I feel something soft in there.
What?
It feels soft like a snake, too.
-Really? -I'm telling you.
-You are insane. -Huh?
I would never have my hand in a hole like that.
Look. Probably at home,
probably see half of the tree is rotten.
He's in there, though, huh?
Oh, I guarantee there's a big snake in there.
Oh, look, they got a whole 'nother hole over here.
They definitely been using this little hole, huh?
Pee-wee, Pee-wee, over here, over here!
-Oh, my God. -Oh, my God!
Look at this. Two of them!
There's three of them right here!
How'd you not see that?
Pee-wee, whoo!
Look at the size of this thing!
Listen, let's try to get these two in the sack.
Let me hold the tail and you try to catch this big female.
Be careful, Pee-wee.
Oh! That's what I'm talking about.
-Here, here, here! -Let it go, let it go.
-You got it? -I got it.
Watch it, this one's coming now.
Watch it, watch it! Aah!
Watch her, watch her. She's getting away!
-Aah! -Yeah!
[laughs] Pee-wee!
We gotta get that one.
Oh,watch that other one, watch that other one.
He's coming up, he's coming up, be careful.
Okay.
Aah! Ooh, I think I'm having a heart attack.
Grab the tail, Pee-wee, okay? We gonna wear him down.
Get him. Now's your chance. Oh, dude.
Look, it's got something on it.
That's your frickin' snake we've been looking for.
That's him!
We could see the little chip on the skin of the other one,
so we knew it was one to leave.
We left that one alone. We didn't even mess with it.
Dr. Tim told us if we found that one to leave it.
It's going right back to that big oak tree.
Confirming the Judas snake is alive
and capturing six pythons along the way
is the type of collaboration between scientists and hunters
needed to defeat the invading serpents.
Listen, the first one you caught,
-that yellow one, the female? -Yeah.
I guarantee you that's her nest in that big oak tree,
and that's why it hadn't moved in a couple of weeks.
He been waiting for that female to come in heat.
She's just been sitting on her nest.
He's in there with her.
I think Dr. Tim's gonna be real happy that we found his Judas.
We're gonna let him go.
Hopefully ,he'll lead us to some more females eventually.
And we got these other two snakes in the bag.
When we talk back to Dr. Tim,
if he find him another girlfriend,
we gonna come back and catch 'em.
That was fun, huh?