Snake fan hunts pythons in Florida to save other critters

In this March 30, 2017, photo, Brian Hargrove, of Cutler Bay, Fla., pulls down his T-shirt to show a cobra tattooed on his chest while hunting invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades. Hargrove was hired by the district to kill pythons on the district's property near the Florida Everglades. He's enjoying special access to state-owned wetlands and reliving his teenage years, when catching snakes gave him something better to do than join a Miami gang. (AP Photo/Jennifer Kay) (The Associated Press)

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In this April 6, 2017, photo, Brian Hargrove, of Cutler Bay, Fla., stands over an 8-foot-long Burmese python he brought to be measured and weighed at a South Florida Water Management District field office, in Homestead, Fla. Hargrove was hired by the district to kill pythons on the district's property near the Florida Everglades. (AP Photo/Jennifer Kay) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2013, file photo, a captured 13-foot-long Burmese python is displayed for snake hunters and the media before heading out in airboats for the Python Challenge in the Florida Everglades. Florida is paying $8.10 an hour to hunt invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades. Florida's wildlife commission also has announced new prizes and plans to hire additional contractors to boost python removals from state-managed lands. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File) (The Associated Press)

IN THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES – Florida is paying $8.10 an hour to hunt invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades.

But hunter and snake fan Brian Hargrove says he'd work for free. He has to kill the snakes he finds, but it's for a good cause: to save all the deer, rabbits and raccoons that used to be common in the wetlands — animals almost entirely eaten up by pythons.

Hargrove is one of 25 hunters selected to kill pythons through June 1 for the South Florida Water Management District, the state agency overseeing Everglades restoration. As of Tuesday, 50 pythons have been killed by the hunters.

Florida's wildlife commission also has announced new prizes and plans to hire additional contractors to boost python removals from state-managed lands.