Cruising the Everglades with a Burmese Python Hunter
Clip: Episode 1 | 2m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Shane’s journey begins in Florida, where he joins Donna Kalil on a Burmese python hunt.
Donna Kalil is a professional bounty hunter. The scaly fugitives she tracks down in the Everglades grow to 18 feet long… and eat deer and alligators for supper. Shane joins Donna on a hunt to learn more about Burmese pythons. Brought to Florida as pets, many pythons were dumped into the swamp when they outgrew their owners.
Cruising the Everglades with a Burmese Python Hunter
Clip: Episode 1 | 2m 46sVideo has Closed Captions
Donna Kalil is a professional bounty hunter. The scaly fugitives she tracks down in the Everglades grow to 18 feet long… and eat deer and alligators for supper. Shane joins Donna on a hunt to learn more about Burmese pythons. Brought to Florida as pets, many pythons were dumped into the swamp when they outgrew their owners.
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Surprising Moments from Human Footprint
Do you think you know what it means to be human? In Human Footprint, Biologist Shane Campbell-Staton asks us all to think again. As he discovers, the story of our impact on the world around us is more complicated — and much more surprising — than you might realize.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- When'd you decide to take up the mantle of python wrangler?
- I know how to catch snakes.
I've known how to all my life.
And I knew that I could make a difference... You know, a positive difference to the environment that I love.
- What is the largest python you've caught?
- Largest I've caught was 16 even.
- Oh, wow.
- These guys didn't sprout wings and fly over from Southeast Asia.
We brought 'em here.
So we made the problem, we gotta... We gotta fix it.
- [Narrator] One way Florida is trying to fix the problem is by paying folks like Donna to capture and kill the pythons.
So far, she's brought in more than 600 of them.
- So if you do see something on the road, yell, "Python."
And then... we're good to go.
- Awesome.
- And we're gonna go get 'em.
- That's right.
- All right.
See, this is a big part of the story and why there's so many of them out here.
It's so hard to find them.
And yeah, when you're looking down into that water there, there could be a 14-footer sitting in here.
And again, if we blink, we'll miss it.
For a needle in the haystack, right?
- A really big-ass needle.
- (laughs) Yeah.
Oh, we got a snake on the road right there.
Here is a brown water snake.
How many wild animals you think you could do that with?
- Not many.
- Right?
- It's always good to see some natives moving around.
Good to go?
- Yep.
- All right.
Let's go get a python... Or two, three.
I so highly respect these things 'cause they're in an environment that they were put in.
- Yeah.
- And they took over.
We're never gonna catch 'em all.
But we are trying to slow that expansion.
- [Correspondent] Oh, stop.
Back up just a little bit.
- Got something?
- [Correspondent] Stop.
- [Donna] It was down by the trees?
(twigs crackling) When they feel vibrations coming at them, when they think that there's something's coming at 'em, they're gonna take off.
There is a gator right there.
You definitely saw a python, though?
- [Producer] I'm positive.
- [Donna] If it was a python, it got to the water before we got to it.
Video has Closed Captions
Shane tracks down four invasive species that make him reconsider what it means to belong. (30s)
Tracking a Burmese Python with Biologists in Florida
Video has Closed Captions
Biologists work tirelessly to radio track Burmese Pythons deep in Florida's marshland. (4m 5s)
The Wild Horses of Nevada's Deserts
Video has Closed Captions
Shane ventures into the vast deserts of Nevada to learn about wild horses on public lands. (3m 4s)
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