'It was going for my throat': Florida python hunters wrestle invasive snakes

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff bag an invasive Burmese python in the Everglades Wildlife Management Area, Florida June 23, 2019. Picture taken June 23, 2019. FWC/Alicia Wellman/Handout via REUTERS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY.

OCHOPEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Thomas Aycock's life flashed before his eyes one night in the Everglades as a 13-foot Burmese python squeezed his arm and a leg in its coils. Aycock, who was trying to bag the snake by himself, still recalls feeling its tail across his back."I knew what it was doing, it was going for my throat," said the 54-year-old Florida Army National Guard major who was able to wrestle free during that incident in the summer of 2018. "I said to myself, 'It can't go down like this.'"That scare has not stopped him from returning again and again to the sprawling wetland, devoting almost every spare moment to searching the thick brush and sawgrass for more snakes, as he was doing during this interview.

The state encourages hunters to capture or kill the giant, invasive south Asian snakes that are decimating local wildlife. Dozens of hunters are prowling the Everglades during Florida's 10-day Python Bowl, which ends Monday. Armed with long metal hooks that resemble fireplace pokers and bags, many hunters catch the snakes and take them in live.