'Python Huntress' takes on invasive snakes in the Everglades
Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello
A photo of Amy Siewe, a professional hunter of Florida's invasive Burmese python species, and a python skull are displayed at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello
OCHOPEE, Florida - Amy Siewe was a successful real estate agent -- but her life changed after she captured her first python in Florida's Everglades.
"I just had this fascination with snakes. So when I learned that there was a python problem here in Florida ... I went on a hunt, I caught a nine-foot (2.75-meter) python, and that was it. I was hooked!" she said.
Within two months she had sold her business in Indiana and moved to Florida to become a python hunter.
Now, with more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, she is known as the "Python Huntress" -- one of a handful of women amongst hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem.
"This python is about 10 feet (3 meters) long," she says as she wrestles a snake she has just captured in the tall grass in the middle of the night. "It's probably about three years old, and to date it's eaten about 200 of our native animals, including mammals and birds."
Burmese pythons have been spreading through the Everglades National Park since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 destroyed a breeding facility for the pet trade, freeing some 900 snakes.
Originally native to Southeast Asia, the python can grow up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) long and has a voracious appetite, consuming the local wildlife, including mammals, birds and even alligators.
The Everglades is a unique subtropical ecosystem, with the largest continuous mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. It is home to a vast array of unique species, including the endangered Florida panther, the American alligator and the American crocodile.
But it provides no natural predators to the Burmese python, allowing the population of the invasive species to balloon. Scientists have noted dramatic declines in raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and rabbits in the region.
"There's an estimated 500,000 pythons out there," Siewe said.
The pythons, which are hunted by night, cannot legally be transported alive, so they are killed on site after being captured and measured.
Once home, Siewe skins the dead snakes, and then has the skins professionally tanned into leather to be made into purses, wallets, watch bands and other goods.
It takes an average of 12 hours to catch one.
"So it's not that effective, right," she admits. "We're always going to have pythons in Florida. What we're trying to do is figure out how to decrease their numbers. Hunting right now is the most effective tool that we have." REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani shakes hand with a member of the military, on the day Adam Al-Najjar, a Palestinian boy from Gaza who survived an Israeli strike that killed his nine siblings and his father, arrives to receive treatment, accompanied by his mother Alaa al-Najjar, at Milan's Linate Airport, Italy, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco A view shows the aircraft carrying Adam Al-Najjar, a Palestinian boy from Gaza who survived an Israeli strike that killed his nine siblings and his father, as he arrives to receive treatment, accompanied by his mother Alaa al-Najjar, at Milan's Linate Airport, Italy, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco A woman carrying a child walks towards an ambulance, after the aircraft carrying Adam Al-Najjar, a Palestinian boy from Gaza who survived an Israeli strike that killed his nine siblings and his father, landed at Milan's Linate Airport, Italy, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco A boy is carried on a stretcher towards an ambulance, after the aircraft carrying Adam Al-Najjar, a Palestinian boy from Gaza who survived an Israeli strike that killed his nine siblings and his father, landed at Milan's Linate Airport, Italy, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Claudia Greco Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment MILAN - A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on Wednesday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members. Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan's Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city's Niguarda Hospital. The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports. The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza. Adam "is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged," his 36-year-old mother, Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica. Adam's father, Hamdi al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack. "The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can't feel my fingers. There's still a lot of pain," Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu. A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel's Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday. The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza. Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said. The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures. In recent months, Rome has criticised the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions. Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
7 hours ago
- Straits Times
Funding cuts could harm progress on child labour as world misses key target
FILE PHOTO: A UNICEF logo is pictured outside their offices in Geneva, Switzerland, January 30, 2017. Picture taken January 30, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/ File Photo GENEVA - The world has missed its target of eliminating child labour by 2025 and funding cuts threaten recent progress on reducing the numbers of children in work, a new joint report by two United Nations agencies said on Wednesday. The number of children in work worldwide has almost halved in the past 25 years but nearly 138 million were still involved in child labour in the past year, denied the right to learn and play, the International Labour Organization and UNICEF said. UNICEF's executive director Catherine Russell said funding cuts by donor countries threaten to undermine what she said had been encouraging signs on the issue in the last four years. Reductions in education and livelihood support programmes risk forcing more vulnerable families to send their children to work, she said. "Progress towards ending child labour is possible by applying legal safeguards, expanded social protection, investment in free, quality education... We must recommit to ensuring that children are in classrooms and playgrounds, not at work," Russell said in a statement. U.N. agencies have expressed alarm about the impact of drastic cuts implemented by the Trump administration in U.S. foreign aid, though the ILO-UNICEF report did not explicitly reference this issue. Though there are 22 million fewer children in work since 2020, some 54 million worldwide remain in hazardous work that could harm their health and development, the agencies said. The majority of children work in agriculture, while about a quarter are in services such as domestic work or selling goods in markets. Two-thirds of all child labour takes place in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for around 87 million children, with only a small reduction from 23.9% to 21.5% over the last four years. "The findings of our report offer hope and show that progress is possible. Children belong in school, not in work... We still have a long way to go before we achieve our goal of eliminating child labour," said ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo in a statement. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
'Python Huntress' takes on invasive snakes in the Everglades
Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello A photo of Amy Siewe, a professional hunter of Florida's invasive Burmese python species, and a python skull are displayed at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello Amy Siewe, a professional python hunter, inspects dyed skins of Florida's invasive Burmese python species at her home in Naples, Florida, U.S. June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Marco Bello OCHOPEE, Florida - Amy Siewe was a successful real estate agent -- but her life changed after she captured her first python in Florida's Everglades. "I just had this fascination with snakes. So when I learned that there was a python problem here in Florida ... I went on a hunt, I caught a nine-foot (2.75-meter) python, and that was it. I was hooked!" she said. Within two months she had sold her business in Indiana and moved to Florida to become a python hunter. Now, with more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, she is known as the "Python Huntress" -- one of a handful of women amongst hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem. "This python is about 10 feet (3 meters) long," she says as she wrestles a snake she has just captured in the tall grass in the middle of the night. "It's probably about three years old, and to date it's eaten about 200 of our native animals, including mammals and birds." Burmese pythons have been spreading through the Everglades National Park since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 destroyed a breeding facility for the pet trade, freeing some 900 snakes. Originally native to Southeast Asia, the python can grow up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) long and has a voracious appetite, consuming the local wildlife, including mammals, birds and even alligators. The Everglades is a unique subtropical ecosystem, with the largest continuous mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. It is home to a vast array of unique species, including the endangered Florida panther, the American alligator and the American crocodile. But it provides no natural predators to the Burmese python, allowing the population of the invasive species to balloon. Scientists have noted dramatic declines in raccoons, opossums, bobcats, and rabbits in the region. "There's an estimated 500,000 pythons out there," Siewe said. The pythons, which are hunted by night, cannot legally be transported alive, so they are killed on site after being captured and measured. Once home, Siewe skins the dead snakes, and then has the skins professionally tanned into leather to be made into purses, wallets, watch bands and other goods. It takes an average of 12 hours to catch one. "So it's not that effective, right," she admits. "We're always going to have pythons in Florida. What we're trying to do is figure out how to decrease their numbers. Hunting right now is the most effective tool that we have." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
