The "Women Who Hunt Pythons" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Trying to think of a name for today's story, but the only thing I could come up with was what you just read.  It tells exactly what the story is about...believe it or not!    A lady by the name of Donna Kalil claims she loves snakes.  Fascinated by them since she was a kid and her father was in the Air Force and they lived in the mountains of Venezula where he was stationed.  She and her friends loved playing 'I spy' in which they had to hunt for birds, snakes and other animals.  Donna said she became good at sighting just about anything in the jungle.  Today she not only tries to find them, but kills them.  Not all types of snakes...only the Burmese python.

The Burmese python seems to have taken over the South Florida Everglades since they were first sighted in the 1970s.  It is tough to find any rabbits or foxes anymore in the Everglades since the pythons have taken over the swamps.  The pythons also attack amphibians, reptiles and wading birds including the much loved wood stork.  They even go after alligators and crocodiles.  Today, many of the Everglades hunters are going after the python.  So, where did all the pythons come from.  Some say the growth of pet pythons, who seemed to have grown too big for a pet and have been released into the  Everglades...is one reason.  Paid contractors and others have killed roughly 9,000 snakes since 2017 when the program began.  The pythons breed prolifically, laying anywhere from half-a-dozen to 100 per nest.  Since the python has very few predators, their numbers are growing quickly.  Recently hunting contests have been used to try and lower the size of the python population.  Most python hunters have been men, but Donna has proven to be an effective hunter.  

Python hunter Donna Kalil

Donna, a blond, tan, lithe former homecoming queen in high school in Dayton, Ohio has teamed with one of her protégées, Amy Siewe and have been a highly effective pair of eradicators.  They hunt to save the native creatures that are being annihilated by the Burmese Pythons.  The largest one they have caught to date is a 17 foot, 110 pounder.   Both girls love the snakes and don't relish killing them, but they feel a need to protect the native wildlife.  Now, I guess I should tell you that both python hunters work the night shift in the Everglades!  They begin searching for their prey when the sun goes down until dawn.  Now...how scary can that be?  Seems that's when the pythons also hunt for their quarry.  You'd never catch me in the Everglades trying to catch a 17 foot, 110 pound snake in the dark.  Wow!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.