Speaker 1: Really now, really, really.
Speaker 2: Now, really Hello, and welcome to Really Know Really with
Speaker 2: Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who remind you it wouldn't
Speaker 2: kill you to subscribe to our show, but something that
Speaker 2: can kill you is the subject of today's episode, especially
Speaker 2: if you live in the beautiful Sunshine state. Florida is
Speaker 2: now infested with an estimated three hundred thousand plus pythons,
Speaker 2: some twenty feet long and weighing up to two fifty pounds. Currently,
Speaker 2: the only way to control these non native snakes is
Speaker 2: by sending hunters deep into alligator infested swamps to find, capture,
Speaker 2: and kill these apex predators. Really no, really. You'll also
Speaker 2: hear about Jason's startling close encounter with a snake, plus
Speaker 2: the touching story of the man with an emotional support alligator.
Speaker 2: Here's Jason and Peter.
Speaker 3: You know, they have a python problem, a Burmese python
Speaker 3: problem in the Florida Everglades. People tend to get them
Speaker 3: as pets and then they get a little unwieldy and
Speaker 3: they release them and they become predatory animals, and they
Speaker 3: upset the balance of the ecology of the everglades. So
Speaker 3: people go out and they capture these things. That's the
Speaker 3: thing to do is capture it. So I don't know,
Speaker 3: you know, but you might not know. Pythons can get
Speaker 3: to be big. So imagine something seventeen feet seventeen feet long,
Speaker 3: weighing about one hundred and ten pounds. What do you
Speaker 3: think is the bear requirement to send somebody out to
Speaker 3: capture that thing? I have had a figure crocodile Dundee,
Speaker 3: the crocodile hunter, maybe a four hundred pound guy with
Speaker 3: a gun and a scope. Now a little woman five
Speaker 3: foot four, one hundred and twenty pounds went out and
Speaker 3: captured a seventeen foot three inch python herself, no weapons.
Speaker 4: She took basically a baggie and a lot of kutzpah.
Speaker 3: Amy Sewey was a real estate person in Indianapolis and
Speaker 3: went to Florida and got involved with this python hunting
Speaker 3: thing and God hook, She's going to tell you her story.
Speaker 5: Can you see what that moment we should I'm not
Speaker 5: showing another person the house.
Speaker 4: I've had I've had.
Speaker 5: I'm in the middle of a couples when I'm done,
Speaker 5: and I'm going to go what aggravat I'm going to
Speaker 5: with the insects of the side of my head. Anytime
Speaker 5: I've peed in the Everglades, I've seen two sorts of
Speaker 5: eyes looking up right at me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, why would you go there? We got a fight? Yeah.
Speaker 3: So she has captured and killed more than four hundred pythons.
Speaker 3: She posts guided towards where ticket buying guests go out
Speaker 3: there with her. She makes all kinds of beautiful uh
Speaker 3: python leather products like watchbands and whatnot. And as I say,
Speaker 3: she has, I don't think there's a woman with a
Speaker 3: with a bigger record than this three inch python, one
Speaker 3: hundred and ten pounds, Ladies and gentlemen, a woman I'm
Speaker 3: already afraid of. Welcome Amy ce Hi, Amy.
Speaker 1: Well, hello, thanks for having me a pleasure.
Speaker 5: It's amazing, amazing looking at you, because I mean, if
Speaker 5: I don't know, if I could listen have been to
Speaker 5: the Everglades. There's so many things other than the python
Speaker 5: which can cause you can recap the python is. So
Speaker 5: just tell your story for a minute and get us
Speaker 5: up to speed. What did happen with the real estate
Speaker 5: job where you went, no moss, I'm going to go
Speaker 5: catch pythons.
Speaker 6: Actually, nothing happened. I wasn't even looking for a new career.
Speaker 6: I loved for real estate. I was good at it,
Speaker 6: and that was that was my track. But the thing is,
Speaker 6: I love snakes. I've got this passion for snakes and
Speaker 6: I always have since I was a little girl. My
Speaker 6: dad put me in the creek and taught me how
Speaker 6: to catch all kinds of critters. And I just had
Speaker 6: this crazy fascination with snakes and it it just never ended.
Speaker 4: And what is it?
Speaker 5: What is it? Because I'm he' screeped out by them?
Speaker 5: I am so creepy.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get Freudian, but I've heard you say,
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 4: I've just always loved snakes. Tell a little bit, try
Speaker 4: and look in a mirror. I figure out what the
Speaker 4: hell you problem is? Snakes? What is it? It's serious?
Speaker 6: If I could answer, I was like, why wasn't it
Speaker 6: puppies or kittens or dolphins or something normal, you know?
Speaker 6: Or why didn't I play with barbies? Why am I
Speaker 6: playing with snakes? This is so stupid, But that's that's
Speaker 6: what it is, and it's it's actually my dad had
Speaker 6: this tremendous, you know, love for nature and taught me
Speaker 6: all kinds of things about it.
Speaker 1: And then the snakes. I think it's because we didn't see.
Speaker 6: Them as often as everything else, and it was you know,
Speaker 6: they were you know, you didn't want them to bite you, obviously,
Speaker 6: and it was almost kind of like a challenge.
Speaker 1: It was a huge challenge.
Speaker 6: And so whenever we would catch one, it would be,
Speaker 6: you know, it would be amazing. And so I just
Speaker 6: from there this crazy passion.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you, turtles didn't cut it for you?
Speaker 6: You know proms prad ads, Yeah, kind of boy snake.
Speaker 5: I see these videos, especially when I was looking to
Speaker 5: do research this, and they're lunatics who have these perrariums
Speaker 5: with the snakes in it. And the guy's walking in
Speaker 5: and say, oh, all submit me, and he's laughing and going, world,
Speaker 5: what's satisfaction? Is there a relationship that you get with
Speaker 5: a snake? Can you understand the snake? Can you understand
Speaker 5: the behavior?
Speaker 4: Carstle Tongue is now with a dog.
Speaker 5: With a dog, you hope you get a relationship and
Speaker 5: you can expect you expectations or whatever.
Speaker 4: With a cat, even though they're.
Speaker 5: Sneaky and I wouldn't have one again, but and they
Speaker 5: suck the life out of it, you can get what
Speaker 5: they're about. Even when you see people with big cats,
Speaker 5: they can anticipate maybe with a snake. What enjoyment do
Speaker 5: you get about having a snake in your room when
Speaker 5: you go to sleep at night? Do you go to
Speaker 5: kiss the snake at night?
Speaker 4: Is it? I mean, is it a Is there a
Speaker 4: relationship or.
Speaker 3: That's presuming, but you do you find an affectionate relationship
Speaker 3: between snakes or a bonding relationship between yourself and snakes.
Speaker 1: No, there's no bonding with a snake.
Speaker 6: They actually don't have the part of their brain that's,
Speaker 6: you know, the emotional piece of it. So they know me,
Speaker 6: the snakes that I've owned in the past because I
Speaker 6: used to be a breeder. They know me because I
Speaker 6: feed them basically. But when I go out there in
Speaker 6: the swamp, I mean obviously they're all out to try
Speaker 6: to you know, they.
Speaker 1: Don't let me.
Speaker 6: Let me back up, people are not on the menu, okay,
Speaker 6: So these pythons are not actually coming after us to
Speaker 6: eat us. So it actually makes my job a little
Speaker 6: bit harder because they're very very hard to find. If
Speaker 6: they were trying to eat me, at least I know
Speaker 6: where they are, so then I could.
Speaker 4: I could beat baits. So you leave real estate and
Speaker 4: gone to the everglet.
Speaker 1: Sure. Well, I learned about the python problem down here.
Speaker 1: I had no idea it.
Speaker 6: Was a thing, and when I found out about it,
Speaker 6: I thought, WHOA, what is this? I really need to
Speaker 6: go down and see what this is all about. You
Speaker 6: can catch pythons in Florida. That's kind of cool. And
Speaker 6: so I went on vacation. I went on a hunt.
Speaker 6: I caught a python, and I was hooked. I was like,
Speaker 6: this is it, this is what I'm this is what
Speaker 6: I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 4: It was that amazing, was that big a rushian adrenaline
Speaker 4: rush for you to do it?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 1: It wasn't even that.
Speaker 6: It was that this is I can take this passion
Speaker 6: and I can use it and make a difference in
Speaker 6: the world. I can actually help Florida with this colossal
Speaker 6: problem because I'm not afraid of them. I know a
Speaker 6: lot about them, and I constantly want to learn. So
Speaker 6: I'm an asset to the team in Florida.
Speaker 3: Okay, I've seen the video, but for people that haven't,
Speaker 3: can you describe briefly how do you podcast a seventeen
Speaker 3: foot python?
Speaker 4: What do you do well?
Speaker 6: Typically with a normal snake, but that's not quite that big.
Speaker 6: You just you grab it behind the head, right, you
Speaker 6: get all the way up behind the jaws, because if
Speaker 6: you get down even just a little bit, they'll turn
Speaker 6: around and they'll nail you. So you have to catch
Speaker 6: them behind the head. So with a seventeen footer though,
Speaker 6: you know, I was by myself, and I cannot out
Speaker 6: muscle a seventeen footer. Most people can't, and so I
Speaker 6: knew early on that I was probably going to come
Speaker 6: across a big snake and I needed to be prepared
Speaker 6: for how I was going to do this. And so
Speaker 6: in the vet and pet store business, you know, we
Speaker 6: would put a dark cloth over the animal's eyes or
Speaker 6: their face to calm them down.
Speaker 1: So I thought maybe this would work for a python.
Speaker 6: So I practiced with like a couple thirteen and fourteen footers,
Speaker 6: and I would put the bag, it was six by
Speaker 6: six inch drawstring bag over these pythons heads and they
Speaker 6: just stopped.
Speaker 1: It just stopped them cold.
Speaker 6: So I so the night that I caught that seventeen footer,
Speaker 6: it was so funny because I was by myself, It's midnight,
Speaker 6: and I'm driving my truck slowly down the road and
Speaker 6: I see this thing periscoping and that's when they kind
Speaker 6: of they're up about two or.
Speaker 1: Three feet in the dust.
Speaker 5: I wanted to ask about nobody believes that. I read
Speaker 5: that part the periscoping. So that's like a cobra. It's sitting.
Speaker 5: It's actually sitting up looking at you.
Speaker 6: Yes it is, but it's the telltale sign is that
Speaker 6: is that white against all of the green and brown, right, so.
Speaker 1: They stand out.
Speaker 6: And so I see that, and I pulled the truck
Speaker 6: over and I grab my GoPro and I grab my
Speaker 6: little bag and I get out. And I don't know
Speaker 6: how big this snake is. I mean, I just know
Speaker 6: that it's a python. And so in the meantime, it
Speaker 6: had gone down. So when I finally I finally see
Speaker 6: some pattern through the grass and I follow it up
Speaker 6: and I see the biggest head of a snake I've
Speaker 6: ever seen. And I'm standing there and I'm looking at
Speaker 6: this bag and I'm looking at this I'm like, oh
Speaker 6: my god, what's wrong with me? But I just you know,
Speaker 6: you can't hesitate. So I just jumped on it and
Speaker 6: I nailed it down. And now keep in mind, I
Speaker 6: can't see that the rest of the snake. I have
Speaker 6: no idea how big the snake is. I just know
Speaker 6: that it's pretty big and it's It wasn't a wrestling match.
Speaker 1: It was more a battle of strength. It was trying
Speaker 1: to shim me back into the swamp.
Speaker 6: So I'm, you know, actually squatting it up with my
Speaker 6: you know, legs, trying to keep it from going back
Speaker 6: in the swamp. And then I ended up getting that
Speaker 6: bag over its head and as soon as I did,
Speaker 6: it just stopped. I mean, and you can see the video,
Speaker 6: it's kind of a struggle, but the snake stopped. So
Speaker 6: I was just sitting there on top of a snake
Speaker 6: at midnight in a ditch on the side of the highway,
Speaker 6: and I'm like, hah, now I have to pull this
Speaker 6: thing out of here.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that's when another truck of people, you knew, who
Speaker 3: I guess were fellow hunters.
Speaker 6: Yeah, some other hunters drove by. So I yelled out
Speaker 6: and they backed up and they said, what are you doing.
Speaker 6: I'm like, I'm sitting on a python. They're like why,
Speaker 6: Like you'll see and they came down and oh my gosh,
Speaker 6: and they both said, this is the biggest python we've
Speaker 6: ever seen, so it was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: We will post the video of Amy's capture of this
Speaker 3: on our website. You can also see at her website
Speaker 3: as well, and we'll give you that information at the end.
Speaker 3: But exactly as you say, I'm watching the video and
Speaker 3: I'm seeing what you're seeing through your GoPro. You're right
Speaker 3: on top of this thing. I can't see it until
Speaker 3: you actually put your hands around that. I couldn't see
Speaker 3: what you were seeing. It just looked like weeds and
Speaker 3: straw muck.
Speaker 5: And if it's disguised, then you're going for it and
Speaker 5: you can't find it right away, can then turn on
Speaker 5: you and bite you as a defense.
Speaker 6: Mechage, Absolutely, you can mass They got razor sharp teeth, right,
Speaker 6: they have a.
Speaker 1: Mouthful of razor sharp teeth teeth.
Speaker 6: I've been bitten. I don't even know how many times,
Speaker 6: so many times.
Speaker 1: Do have a.
Speaker 4: Visible bite scar anywhere that you can show?
Speaker 6: No, No, Okay, it would be so cool if I did,
Speaker 6: But they don't scar for some reason.
Speaker 4: It's really weird to see how they can scar. Take
Speaker 4: me on a hunt.
Speaker 3: You'll see how badly oh that's going to leave a
Speaker 3: mark has never been truer.
Speaker 5: So the other thing I got to wonder about the everglades,
Speaker 5: and the everglades, you're jumping in there. There's stuff in there.
Speaker 5: There's there's gators, there's all kinds. So how do you
Speaker 5: know what you're stepping into if it's night and you
Speaker 5: can't see.
Speaker 1: Well, you don't.
Speaker 6: When I first moved there, I thought I was going
Speaker 6: to have to have like a fifty cow and you
Speaker 6: know for the bears and the gators and pythons and
Speaker 6: the panthers and you know, all the venomous snakes that
Speaker 6: are there and all kinds of things. But at the
Speaker 6: end of the day, they don't want anything to do
Speaker 6: with you. I mean they really really don't.
Speaker 4: Gators would not attack.
Speaker 3: Have you stepped within a foot of a gator, they're
Speaker 3: not going to go ooh, here's something they wouldn't.
Speaker 6: Usually usually they don't let you get that close to them. Now,
Speaker 6: the only thing that I would be worried about is
Speaker 6: a bowl alligator that during mating season.
Speaker 1: It's being territorial, I would think.
Speaker 5: And a lot of there's a lot of videos, by
Speaker 5: the way, Love Florida Love on golf courses when a
Speaker 5: giant python is fighting an alligator on like the eighth
Speaker 5: t and these guys are standing there and by the way,
Speaker 5: pissed that.
Speaker 3: We got to we're trying to fight, can we all
Speaker 3: that we're trying to play through?
Speaker 5: So the amazing thing about these pythons and why they've
Speaker 5: eradicated the mammal population there is they eat every I mean,
Speaker 5: they're eating the panthers, they're eating the gators, they're eating
Speaker 5: all of the mammals. So they don't have right now
Speaker 5: any other predator. And they're saying there's no chance at
Speaker 5: eradicating mall because there could be one hundred and fifty thousand,
Speaker 5: there could be three hundred thousand. They're not sure how
Speaker 5: many there are.
Speaker 6: Correct, that is correct, That is correct. But yees, so
Speaker 6: there are no predators. They are it, We are it.
Speaker 6: I mean we've got invasive hogs, and hogs will eat pythons.
Speaker 6: Pythons will eat hogs, but nobody eats enough of each
Speaker 6: other to make a difference.
Speaker 1: Same with alligators.
Speaker 6: Neither one are very high on each other's you know,
Speaker 6: priority list of food.
Speaker 5: And they're going north now too. They're up in like
Speaker 5: West palm Are here, they're gambling in Boca they're going
Speaker 5: to Delis and Boca. I mean they're they're they're everywhere, right,
Speaker 5: They're really getting to spread out.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's okay, I'm just a cart blonte statement.
Speaker 4: You have more than I do.
Speaker 3: I honestly, I don't think I could do what you do.
Speaker 3: I really do what you think people have. Many people
Speaker 3: have such a repulsion to snakes. It seems to be
Speaker 3: a huge phobia for many many people. Do you have
Speaker 3: any thoughts on them?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 1: I think it.
Speaker 6: You know, they're also portrayed. You always see these giant teeth.
Speaker 6: You know, they're going into these fangs of the of
Speaker 6: the vipers and the rattlesnakes, and I think that, you know,
Speaker 6: people don't want to get bitten by that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's weird.
Speaker 3: People get bitten by dogs too, but generally that's not
Speaker 3: as big a phobi there's I think it's to me,
Speaker 3: there's something about they are very they feel very alien,
Speaker 3: as many reptiles amphibians do. They're not they're not cuddly,
Speaker 3: they don't have the warm eyes.
Speaker 4: You don't exactly they don't see snakes playing a piano.
Speaker 3: Don't even understand how are they moving exactly?
Speaker 5: What are they do, they're so alien to us that
Speaker 5: that's a yeah.
Speaker 4: So here's the question I was going to ask you.
Speaker 3: Are you just generally a little less fearful than most
Speaker 3: people or is there stuff that you go, Yeah, I
Speaker 3: know it's irrational, but this scares me.
Speaker 6: You know, I will say this, jumping in that swamp,
Speaker 6: it's a challenge.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 4: Are you friendly?
Speaker 5: I know there's Dusty the wild Man Crumb and there's
Speaker 5: just the swamp apes. There's a bunch of people doing
Speaker 5: what you do. And are they There's a certain amount
Speaker 5: that are sanctioned by the state that go out to
Speaker 5: try and eradicate. And then there's the big round up,
Speaker 5: the ten is it the ten ten day round round up?
Speaker 5: Is that what it is? Where you come down there
Speaker 5: and you get paid how much?
Speaker 4: Four? Oh, it's big money, big money, Pete.
Speaker 3: I heard it's like fifty bucks for the snake in general,
Speaker 3: and then for the first four feet there's nothing, and
Speaker 3: then after four feet it's like ten bucks a foot.
Speaker 4: You can really you can eat at Arby's at the
Speaker 4: end of a boost to stuff that we don't understand.
Speaker 4: I'm just saying, for what they're doing, it's not a
Speaker 4: lot of money.
Speaker 5: You're in the Everglades, you just finished bowling, You're on
Speaker 5: your way home. You see a snake across the road.
Speaker 4: You pick it up. You're dropping a drop box and
Speaker 4: a license. You need a license to do this, don't you.
Speaker 6: No, the public can can hunt the snakes. However, they
Speaker 6: cannot transport them live, so they have to be killed
Speaker 6: on site.
Speaker 3: Oh, when I heard about Peter, let me tell you
Speaker 3: about the killing thing I read something about the killing
Speaker 3: isn't it's a two step method to do it. You know,
Speaker 3: to do it nicely, to do it nicely. So the
Speaker 3: first thing, the first step is swim. Your first step
Speaker 3: is fleeing, and then step one A is your first
Speaker 3: step is fleeing, and then step one A is Your
Speaker 3: method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately. You
Speaker 3: read you destroy the animal's brain by piffing, which which
Speaker 3: prevents it from regaining consciousness. So conscious the consciousness part.
Speaker 3: The thing I saw is like a it's like a.
Speaker 3: It's it's did you see it's this little thing You
Speaker 3: go boom and it like sends a pellet bang him
Speaker 3: right in the head in this in the sweet spot,
Speaker 3: and they're unconscious now that's where I would walk away,
Speaker 3: going it's not chasing me now. And then I think
Speaker 3: the next part is you take I saw like this
Speaker 3: is gonna be gross, like a screwdriver goes in and
Speaker 3: you kind of like.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then if you're, if you're, if you amy.
Speaker 3: We spent the next seventeen hours skinning an eighteen foot python,
Speaker 3: and you dry it and she makes very beautiful Do.
Speaker 4: You know what?
Speaker 5: I have one eighteen foot python? You can get one
Speaker 5: driving glove.
Speaker 3: No, I saw it. I think I saw belts. Yes,
Speaker 3: I saw watch bands or bracelets of something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got watch bands apple.
Speaker 4: Oh that is actually gorgeous.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I skin them on my the LNI of
Speaker 6: my snowbird condo.
Speaker 1: Never did I think that i'd be doing.
Speaker 5: That from from from selling real estate. Now there's your
Speaker 5: significant other, who I'm guessing still with you. I don't
Speaker 5: want to probe, but is he is?
Speaker 2: He?
Speaker 5: Is he as into this stuff as you are? Because
Speaker 5: I could see me coming out my bathrobe and going
Speaker 5: and she's got another ag, another thing hanging from the
Speaker 5: thing in the condo.
Speaker 1: Yes, no, no, no he wasn't.
Speaker 6: So I just have to tell you this though, so
Speaker 6: he's a hunter and a fisherman, you know, very outdoorsy.
Speaker 6: Really appreciated my passion for snakes and everything.
Speaker 1: He would go hunting with me.
Speaker 6: He would he would drive the truck and I would
Speaker 6: be able to spot right. And then one day we
Speaker 6: come across a fourteen and a half foot python. I'm like, Babe,
Speaker 6: I think I'm gonna need your help for this. And
Speaker 6: so you have to remember this is kind of in
Speaker 6: the beginning. I don't have all of my you know,
Speaker 6: techniques down. And the one thing that I'm going to
Speaker 6: preface this with is that when a python bites you,
Speaker 6: or bites a its prey, it bites and then it
Speaker 6: wraps its coils the first third it's body, right, So
Speaker 6: we call that throwing the elbow. So so I jump
Speaker 6: on this thing and so it just starts coiling around
Speaker 6: me and I'm fighting it, and and Dave's like, what.
Speaker 4: Do I do?
Speaker 1: What do I do? I'm like, like, get the elbow,
Speaker 1: Get the elbow. He's like, what I say, get the elbow.
Speaker 1: He's like, it's a heathen snake.
Speaker 4: Where's the elbow? You know?
Speaker 1: So I was like, oh, but we actually it was
Speaker 1: a fight.
Speaker 6: She kicked our butts all over the place, and at
Speaker 6: the end of it, the snake is like done. I'm
Speaker 6: laying on top of the snake. Dave's late, you know,
Speaker 6: leaned against a tree, and he's like, uh, yeah, this
Speaker 6: is kind of cool.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 4: So it took you you get into it level. So
Speaker 4: he's into it now. Yep.
Speaker 6: So he he uh, is my partner, he's my driver
Speaker 6: and my captain.
Speaker 1: So he goes out with me my captain.
Speaker 3: Deal the old joke about the two guys that go out.
Speaker 3: One guy gets bit by the poisonous steak and they
Speaker 3: says it gets bit in a private area, and the
Speaker 3: other guy runs and the doctor says, no problem, he's
Speaker 3: just got to suck out the poison. And the guy
Speaker 3: comes back and says, what did the doctor say? Doctor said,
Speaker 3: you're going to die? That's that would I would be
Speaker 3: your boyfriend in the truck with you with the fourteen foot.
Speaker 4: Python going sorry, honey, you're gonna die. She wins.
Speaker 5: Have you ever come across somebody who tried to take
Speaker 5: out a python and it managed?
Speaker 4: I think I read somewhere.
Speaker 5: A college kid that you had to unravel it had
Speaker 5: it had gone around him and if it had kept going.
Speaker 4: Good.
Speaker 1: Yes, Jake is awesome. He's a very very good hunter.
Speaker 6: And he was with some of his buddies that weren't hunters,
Speaker 6: and they came across the record nineteen foot python and
Speaker 6: it was, I mean, it was a pretty big snake.
Speaker 6: So I pull up as as this, I see him
Speaker 6: kind of pull the tail a little bit.
Speaker 1: The python goes to strike and he jumps on it.
Speaker 6: So this is when I'm walking out getting out of
Speaker 6: my truck and he's on the ground and it's kind
Speaker 6: of wrapping them up. And there's these three kids just
Speaker 6: standing in there, and so I was like, hey, do
Speaker 6: you guys need some help?
Speaker 1: And he's like, Amy, I know you have tape. I
Speaker 1: know you have tape tape of mouth. So I was
Speaker 1: like yep.
Speaker 6: So I told the two the kids, I'm like, hey,
Speaker 6: pull the tail, you know, and so they did, and
Speaker 6: then I pulled the coil off of his shoulder so
Speaker 6: he could actually sit up right, and then you know,
Speaker 6: we got the mouth tape.
Speaker 1: But that that was a big snake. That was That
Speaker 1: was pretty cool.
Speaker 3: I know the the the arena for hunting these animals
Speaker 3: is probably male dominated, but do you ever get attitudes
Speaker 3: from these guys or are you one of the guys?
Speaker 4: If you're doing this, you're one of the guys.
Speaker 6: You know, I don't ever get any attitude. It's everybody's
Speaker 6: in this for a different reason. And even though you know, yes,
Speaker 6: it tends to seem like it would be more of
Speaker 6: a masculine thing, it's everybody's on the same team. Yeah,
Speaker 6: you know, we're all we're all well supportive, even though
Speaker 6: it gets kind of competitive within within it, and you
Speaker 6: know there's always some drama. They're always going to have that,
Speaker 6: But for the most part, you know, everybody, we get along.
Speaker 1: We are a team. We're trying to get this done
Speaker 1: and you know, however we can do it.
Speaker 5: We're how many people right now are working catching pythons
Speaker 5: and how many are the.
Speaker 1: Catching The state has one hundred contractors.
Speaker 6: And I'm not part of that program anymore because I
Speaker 6: went I started doing the guiding because you know, as
Speaker 6: Jason had mentioned.
Speaker 4: You need to make a living, get rip right, right, right? Yeah, So,
Speaker 4: how many snakes?
Speaker 5: How many snakes of the hundreds of thousands that a
Speaker 5: half do you guys eradicate a year?
Speaker 6: Do you think, well, since the beginning of these programs
Speaker 6: in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Twenty thousand is how many.
Speaker 4: We've caught, and so I prevented the birth of we have.
Speaker 6: But that's nothing compared to the potentially five hundred thousand
Speaker 6: that are out there. I mean, we are the most
Speaker 6: effective tool right now, the hunters, and it's an average
Speaker 6: of one Python every twelve hours is what we're doing.
Speaker 6: And so that's that's not that's not great, but it's
Speaker 6: the most effective thing we have, even though there's a
Speaker 6: ton of research going on right now to try to
Speaker 6: figure out a better way.
Speaker 1: You know, we can't give up in the meantime. We
Speaker 1: can't just say oh, Python's you win.
Speaker 6: You know, we have to try because somebody at some
Speaker 6: point will come up with some way to be more effective.
Speaker 3: Is there anything if somebody was hearing this story and
Speaker 3: they wanted to be of service, either with a donation
Speaker 3: or in some way, Is there is there any way
Speaker 3: that people that are concerned about this can contribute to
Speaker 3: the effort.
Speaker 6: We've got the National parks, you know, donations for the
Speaker 6: National Parks are you know that a lot of that
Speaker 6: does go into the Python program. You know, you can
Speaker 6: actually if you like the Jewelry and the bracelets. You can,
Speaker 6: you know, buy some of those because a piece that
Speaker 6: you know, it not only funds me, helps fund me
Speaker 6: to be able to stay out there and do this,
Speaker 6: but it also you know, I give I've donated. Uh
Speaker 6: let's see, I'm at over four hundred thousand now since
Speaker 6: I've started this. I donate hunts to charities in southwest Florida.
Speaker 6: So I've raised I think, man, I think it's like
Speaker 6: four hundred and thirty thousand so far.
Speaker 5: And nothing wound so hard like seeing Amy take out
Speaker 5: senior citizens from from the southern Florida after those hunts. Amy,
Speaker 5: thank you so much for coming on, and thank you
Speaker 5: for success, for helping for your great work.
Speaker 3: Congrats on your on your practically record break Amy.
Speaker 4: Time be safe.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having means.
Speaker 5: So I've learned a couple of things here. Number one,
Speaker 5: I'm not going to marry her.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to be a hard fiance.
Speaker 5: I'm not going to the other place. I'm not going
Speaker 5: to Florida probably not Florida either. But but the interesting thing,
Speaker 5: because it's so out of control and all the government
Speaker 5: agencies say you can't eradicate them, you just can't. Because
Speaker 5: there's so many what they're thinking of doing and what
Speaker 5: they're trying to do. They're all you're doing with tracking, Well,
Speaker 5: they'll put the food out like a possum with a
Speaker 5: GPS thing so that the snake can eat it and
Speaker 5: maybe they can track the snake. But also they're thinking
Speaker 5: what they did genetically to modify mosquitoes where they just
Speaker 5: the only offspring they have is mail.
Speaker 4: So that even if they give eggs that it's that.
Speaker 5: And they're trying to use drones, although as she said,
Speaker 5: the fascinating thing is that an eighteen foot long snake
Speaker 5: you don't see it. And the only hope is that
Speaker 5: with invasive species, other species are now going, let's eat
Speaker 5: the egg and they're starting there's adapt there's adaptation. Well
Speaker 5: what happens, there's adaptation because the species that are prayer
Speaker 5: are called naive species because they've never experienced it before.
Speaker 5: Said they don't know, but hopefully over time there's adaptability
Speaker 5: and the cougar goes, well, screw that, I'm eating the
Speaker 5: eggs so that they can possibly get ahead of this,
Speaker 5: but I don't know.
Speaker 3: I can tell you is she she blew right by,
Speaker 3: you know, because she doesn't have it.
Speaker 4: The whole fear of snake thing.
Speaker 3: I remember Dan and I years ago, my wife and
Speaker 3: I were in a place called America's Stonehenge. And if
Speaker 3: I can find these photographs, I think we can. I
Speaker 3: know where they are, I'll post I'll put them on
Speaker 3: our website, okay, because my wife mounted them like this.
Speaker 3: So America's Stonehenge was a was a natural Uh. Some
Speaker 3: tribes a home, you know, tribal home, and they built
Speaker 3: their homes. They would dig down into the so they
Speaker 3: built like these little huts and things under the under
Speaker 3: the top of the air. I think that would be
Speaker 3: a little steps down. So you so big things. You
Speaker 3: go down and you stand in the entrance of one
Speaker 3: of the little homes and you take a photograph. So
Speaker 3: dana'sna's on the surface and I'm down and there's ground
Speaker 3: levels right right.
Speaker 4: So casually ha ha.
Speaker 3: Now at the time, if you saw the beginning of Seinfeld,
Speaker 3: I used to have this big thick strip of hair
Speaker 3: down the middle. I had the bald patch in the
Speaker 3: back and the hair line was receding, but I had
Speaker 3: this yes strip of hair going across the middle. So
Speaker 3: in the first photograph, i'm my head is up and
Speaker 3: I'm cocky and I'm leaning this thing between photograph one
Speaker 3: and two, and she literally went click click, That's how
Speaker 3: she went. I noticed after click number one, there's a
Speaker 3: snake at my elbow where I'm leaning, and I panicked
Speaker 3: so badly. I pull my arm away, head down and
Speaker 3: I begin to run out as she goes click.
Speaker 4: But I've now exposed hair as lock on my head.
Speaker 3: It looks like the hair leapt off of my head
Speaker 3: because I saw a snake at my elbow.
Speaker 4: That's how bad. So you know what else I want
Speaker 4: to post.
Speaker 5: In prepping for this, we talked about animals and weird
Speaker 5: animals and people who collect weird animals, and especially emotional
Speaker 5: supporter because we always see at the at the like
Speaker 5: the Farmer's market or Sunday the guy with the cockatail
Speaker 5: on the shoulder for the exotic pets screaming for attention. Yes,
Speaker 5: but there's a guy, his name is Joseph Hanney, who
Speaker 5: is an emotional support alligator that he takes the schools.
Speaker 5: He carries it like a baby he sleep, but he
Speaker 5: sleeps with it and it looks so adorable. And I
Speaker 5: would never think that an alligator could have that kind
Speaker 5: of relationship with somebody. If you seen the video, have
Speaker 5: you seen this? Google heem David Gogo, I just have that.
Speaker 5: It's stunning. Right, the thing is has a relationship with
Speaker 5: I hope it works out. It's working out. He's had
Speaker 5: it for a long time. And I promise you, before
Speaker 5: that animal and he apart from.
Speaker 3: This world something, it's going to be sitting next to
Speaker 3: me on an airplane. Because I get the people who
Speaker 3: bring their emotional support animals. Okay, please, I don't understand
Speaker 3: that world. We should do an episode about emotional support
Speaker 3: animals and people that need them and why it happens.
Speaker 4: I don't mean to denigrate anybody, but.
Speaker 3: For God's sake, yes you do, Yes you do. I
Speaker 3: have seen pop gully pigs. I have seen somebody brought
Speaker 3: a peacock. A peacock on an airplane. I didn't sit
Speaker 3: next to that one.
Speaker 4: But so are we? Where are we? What do we doing?
Speaker 4: What kind of person has the whole world of animals
Speaker 4: to pick from? And I don't want a puppy.
Speaker 3: I want I need a pincock, an emotional support alligator.
Speaker 4: Check this out?
Speaker 3: How usually these are for people who have anxiety and
Speaker 3: it comes them.
Speaker 4: How anxious. Do you have to be to go? You
Speaker 4: know what I need? Alligator?
Speaker 5: Google? Hon, is this not the most passive sweet alligator?
Speaker 5: I mean it's stunning, right, it's really shocking what this relates.
Speaker 4: Seem to have a symbiotic relationship. Have you seen it, Jason, No,
Speaker 4: you've got to watch it. Put it on the website.
Speaker 3: Okay, learn where did we miss?
Speaker 4: Yes, David, Yeah, the periscopic.
Speaker 5: That's that's quite a.
Speaker 7: Animals that are not supposed to be in Florida are
Speaker 7: are quite quite numerous.
Speaker 4: It just really starts with with the Burmese python.
Speaker 7: There are five hundred non native fish and wildlife have
Speaker 7: been reported in Florida, and there are fifty eight of
Speaker 7: those species who are established, which means they're they're they're
Speaker 7: not they're mating, they're doing just fine. You're not going
Speaker 7: to get rid of them now. Fifty eight Oh maybe
Speaker 7: that's not too bad. Well, fifty eight is twice as
Speaker 7: many as the next most diverse non native reptile and
Speaker 7: amfibity in community, which would be Hawaii at thirty two.
Speaker 4: So everything loves living in Florida.
Speaker 3: So apparently, and we should say David and Farba, it's
Speaker 3: because they don't have to state taxes.
Speaker 5: Can I add to that though, because this is a
Speaker 5: big point, is a true point. If you're listeners can go, well,
Speaker 5: you're talking about snakes, but that doesn't impact me, et cetera.
Speaker 5: It does because with the climate change, with it's getting
Speaker 5: warmer and warmer, species are moving because their environment is
Speaker 5: no longer their native environment because it's changed so much
Speaker 5: as far as right, so they're all a lot of
Speaker 5: species are moving to other places. So you're talking about
Speaker 5: invasive species. The planet is changing in a big way
Speaker 5: as far as invasive species. So we're gonna have some
Speaker 5: problems and things we got to figure out. When we
Speaker 5: had the rodent guy, the rat expert, I mean, he said,
Speaker 5: the way to eradicate the rats is to change ours.
Speaker 5: The only way to do is to change our behavior.
Speaker 5: But if they've got half a million pythons down there
Speaker 5: and they're moving north, yeah, and we've got areas in
Speaker 5: cold areas that are flooding.
Speaker 4: Yeah, animals are going to be moving on those areas.
Speaker 3: To learn, Peter is all you have to do is
Speaker 3: get a black baggy, jump on the head and put
Speaker 3: it on and put the baggie over the head, and
Speaker 3: these things are little puppies.
Speaker 4: I'm going to try that with my cousin behind the years.
Speaker 4: Do they have ears? I don't know.
Speaker 5: Christmas, I'm trying to have my cousin because nothing calms
Speaker 5: him down.
Speaker 4: I'm going to try that. I don't know. You know what,
Speaker 4: I'm done. I'm done.
Speaker 3: We've talked about snakes and I'm squeamish and I'm done.
Speaker 5: But we talked about invasive speech. That important inder you
Speaker 5: neighborhood something did blame me when you're there, You're an
Speaker 5: invasive And by the way, I love the GOOGLEHN talks
Speaker 5: about that.
Speaker 4: You know how many things came here they shouldn't be here.
Speaker 3: You moved there in Florida, for God's sake, examined.
Speaker 4: You also snowbirds every winterday. David. Just know, if we
Speaker 4: have to get rid of you, a little cluck to
Speaker 4: the head, you'll be on God just and then I just.
Speaker 5: On that if you got if you got the thing's
Speaker 5: hair already, yeah, shouldn't you just do it off instead
Speaker 5: of let's lull them to sleep and then we cannot.
Speaker 4: No, that's not it's humane.
Speaker 5: If you're killing them when you're stunning them, why not
Speaker 5: you cunning them.
Speaker 4: You know, that doesn't kill them. That stuns them. So
Speaker 4: I feel if I'm a snake, I'm going get it
Speaker 4: over with already. What's with this with the Well, here's
Speaker 4: the problem.
Speaker 3: Even if like you know this, if you behead the
Speaker 3: snake and you go, okay, we're.
Speaker 4: Done, it's still doing its thing.
Speaker 3: The body can still coil, the head can still bite.
Speaker 5: But if you do the no No Country for old
Speaker 5: men saying and dude, boom, it stuns them.
Speaker 4: They're they're essentially brain dead, but they're not dead.
Speaker 3: They could still around and go I don't know what
Speaker 3: I'm doing it.
Speaker 4: Oh my god. All right, let's go on a hunt
Speaker 4: for one episode.
Speaker 3: I'm going to the airport. I'll see I'm got my
Speaker 3: plane ticket. I'll see the evil game later. Go ahead,
Speaker 3: Nunsen know us snake.
Speaker 4: Us away really now, really.
Speaker 2: Really really, As another episode of Really No Really comes
Speaker 2: to a close, I know you may have heard the
Speaker 2: legends of the Lost City in the Florida Everglades and
Speaker 2: are wondering what the deal is. Well, I'll tell you
Speaker 2: all about it as soon as we thank our guest
Speaker 2: Amy Suey on X. She is at Amy Suey on
Speaker 2: Instagram and YouTube. She is at the Python Huntress and
Speaker 2: if you want to see Amy capture her biggest Python
Speaker 2: single handed, you can watch her on her website, Python
Speaker 2: Huntress dot com. Find all pertinent links in our show notes,
Speaker 2: our little show hangs out on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and
Speaker 2: threads at really No Really podcast And of course you
Speaker 2: can share your thoughts and feedback with us online at
Speaker 2: reallynoreally dot com. If you have a really some amazing
Speaker 2: factor story that boggles your mind, share it with us
Speaker 2: and if we use it, we will send you a
Speaker 2: little gift. Nothing life changing, obviously, but it's the thought
Speaker 2: that counts. Check out our full episodes on YouTube, hit
Speaker 2: that subscribe button and take that bell. So here updated
Speaker 2: when we release new videos and episodes, which we do
Speaker 2: each Tuesday. So listen and follow us on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And now,
Speaker 2: was there really a lost city hidden in the Everglades? Well,
Speaker 2: as far as researchers know, there sure is or was.
Speaker 2: It's believed the city was originally a seminole village. During
Speaker 2: the Civil War. Is rumored that almost forty Confederate soldiers
Speaker 2: may have hit out there with a considerable fortune in
Speaker 2: stolen gold, only to be killed by Seminole warriors. Why
Speaker 2: the city might have been abandoned is unknown, but according
Speaker 2: to the Florida Sun Sentinel and other sources, famed mobster
Speaker 2: al Capone built a three acre compound there to house
Speaker 2: an illegal saloon from which he produced moonshine during Prohibition.
Speaker 4: Today, vegetation has reclaimed this.
Speaker 2: Area of the Everglades, and no one is precisely sure
Speaker 2: where the Lost City is, as no roads have survived
Speaker 2: leading to it. The Seminoles still consider it holy ground.
Speaker 2: This may partly be because the Lost City is considered
Speaker 2: the home of the legendary Skunk Ape, a sort of
Speaker 2: relative of Bigfoot. The skunk Ape has been spotted, photographed,
Speaker 2: and even encountered, but never actually proven to exist, Much
Speaker 2: like my residual payments for this program, no really doing
Speaker 2: It Really is a production of iHeartRadio and Blase Entertainment.