INTERVIEW: Python bounty hunters wrestle snakes on ‘Guardians of the Glades’

Photo: Dusty Crum wrestles a Burmese python on the first season of Guardians of the Glades. Photo courtesy of Discovery / Provided by press site with permission.

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Guardians of the Glades, the new reality series on Discovery Channel, follows Dusty “The Wildman” Crum and his fellow bounty hunters as they head out into the waters near Everglades National Park looking for Burmese pythons, an invasive species in Florida. When they find a snake, Crum and the team must capture it and bag it, all without getting wrapped up in its deadly coils.

Guardians of the Glades premieres Tuesday, May 28 at 10 p.m. on Discovery.

It’s safe to say that Crum doesn’t work a typical 9-to-5. He is on the front lines of an ecological challenge that has plagued the greater Everglades ecosystem for a number of years. The endemic species of the area have proved no match for the pythons, which slither their way through the glades in search of food. Small mammals have been decimated. Ditto for certain bird species.

It’s believed by some people that Hurricane Andrew brought in the pythons in 1992. Eventually state officials in Florida saw the value of a bounty hunting project, all in an attempt to restore the glades and the resident wildlife.

“I guess it was kind of my idea in the first place,” Crum said in a recent phone interview about the genesis of the series. “I had been out to California three times, and the third time I got a meeting with Discovery. We got the meeting, and they liked everything. And here we are.”

When Crum talks about his bounty-hunting job, there’s an air of pride in his voice for the topics of his home state and local ecosystem.

“We’re bounty hunters for the state, and we’re capturing these giant invasive Burmese pythons that have decimated our ecosystem and our wildlife,” he said. “When you see the destruction of what’s happened, there’s no way I can turn my back. I had to get more and more involved, and I got good at catching the snakes. We’re taking them out one at a time and helping to save our Everglades.”

In order to find the snakes, Crum and his team have to put down many miles in the swamps of southern Florida. They cover a lot of ground and rely on their inner endurance to meet the challenge head on.

“It’s not for people that want a quick payoff,” he said of the profession. “It took me seven days to find the first snake when I started hunting in 2013. They’re super camouflaged and not easy to find. They can blend in anywhere. You can walk right past them and not even know they’re there because they just lay still on the grass, and they blend in with the environment. That’s why they’re such a problem. They’re just super hard to find. They’re really cryptic, so it takes a lot of effort and a lot of hours looking.”

Catching the snakes is a tough job with many variables. For Crum, he hates when he finds a snake in the water because that makes his efforts doubly difficult.

“It depends on the snake, and it depends on the conditions,” he said. “If it’s in the water, moving in the water, you’ve got problems because when you get in the water with the snake, that’s their land. They’re Florida’s new water snakes, so they’re very capable in the water. They can hold their breath. They get around cypress trees and stuff. They wrap one little coil around, and they can just pull you right into the swamp. And there’s nothing you can do about it. If it’s in water, it’s definitely a lot higher of a risk. On land, you can kind of read the snake, and each snake’s got his temperament. You can kind of see how it’s going to react. You read the snake before you approach it. It depends on the time of year, too. If it’s real cold, they’re going to be sluggish. If it’s hot, they’re going to be real active and striking. You’ve got to do a little dance with them and play the game and get them in the bag.”

On the inaugural season of Guardians of the Glades, Crum has one incident that he stayed mostly tight-lipped about, but it definitely brought the fear into his heart.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but I did get in a bad spot,” he admitted. “I thought it was going to be over for me, so luckily I had one of the other hunters that was with me. We had split up, and he heard me screaming. He came in and saved me, so it was a sticky situation. But I made it out of there, so hopefully I won’t be tested like that. I’ve been tested a few times like that where it’s the fight of your life, but that’s part of the job. It’s part of the deal. You play with fire, you’re going to get burned sometimes. You could get injured. If a snake gets around your neck or something like that, you’re in big, big trouble because of the sheer force of the snake. It’s not really like they choke you to death; it’s that they squeeze you so hard it elevates your blood pressure to a point where your heart just can’t handle it.”

He added: “They have hundreds of teeth, and they all face backwards. So when you get bit, it’s like an anchor point for the snake. Then, when he anchors down on you, then they can start throwing the coils around, and it really, really gets you in a bad spot. I’ve been bit dozens of times, and sometimes you’ll get a tooth broke off in your hand. It’s like a nasty splinter that will take a couple days to come out and stuff like that. I’m not worried as much about the bite as I am getting wrapped up in the water and drowned.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Guardians of the Glades premieres Tuesday, May 28 at 10 p.m. on Discovery Channel. Click here for more information.