Barefoot Snake Hunter Catches Mother Of All Pythons

HOMESTEAD, FL — To say that Dusty "Wildman" Crum loves his job is something of an understatement. He works outdoors, sets his own hours and wrestles giant, bone-crushing Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades for a living without any sort of weapon or protective clothing. The 36-year-old bearded Crum bagged the mother of all pythons earlier this week when he took home a 16-foot-10 inch python that was carrying 73 babies.

"That's a big snake, boys. That's how we do it in the Everglades son — Wildman," declares Crum with a couple of primal whoops as he conquers the nearly 17-footer into submission. The hunter can be seen on a video (watch below) dragging the animal out of a levy with its distinguishing irregular shaped pattern that has been compared to a reptilian giraffe.

"I seen something shiny. I thought it was maybe a piece of trash like a bottle or something," Crum told the camera. The snake was so large it didn't fit in the cloth bags that Crum carries in the back of his pickup truck. Instead, it had to be placed in a large plastic bin with a lid. "I know how Andre the Giant feels with Hulk Hogan right here, boys," he observed.

What makes the feat even more interesting is that Crum only hunts barefoot as he slogs through the Florida Everglades in search of his prey through swamps and hostile terrain.

"Yeah, I’m barefoot," acknowledged Crum, who surprisingly also runs a business called Orchid Envy with his girlfriend, Natalee McKinney, when he is not tracking giant predators. "I’m raised a Florida boy. I grew up as a kid running barefoot around the woods. I feel like I’m just one of God’s creations running around." (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

Each of the 25 snake hunters have been given "unprecedented access" to 260,000 acres of district-owned lands. They are sent out with a set of instructions and field identification guides to focus on land that is "infested with pythons" in Miami-Dade County. Officials throw in an extra $100 bonus for each python nest they find that contains eggs.

Like Miami Patch on Facebook

As officials got the word out that they were looking for snake hunters to participate in the pilot, they received a deluge of 1,000 applicants for the 25 slots, explained Randy Smith of the South Florida Water Management District. The hunters carry a GPS tracking device that allows staff to keep track of their whereabouts at all times.

"I guarantee you there’s probably two or three hunters out there and three or four that are getting ready to go out for a night hunt," said Smith on Thursday. He added that the district had spent $18,000 on hourly pay for the hunters and another $14,450 in bonus payments as snakes were turned in. The hunters are given the carcasses, which can then be sold for even more money.

"What’s even more impressive is that basically half of those snakes were females, and a large majority were carrying eggs," he said.

Despite being successful at finding pythons, Crum told Patch that he has never killed any of the creatures himself, though he knows they will be euthanized when he brings them to the South Florida Water Management District. The organization pays him $8.10 per hour for up to 40 hours per week plus an on-the-spot payment of $50 for each python that measures up to 4 feet and an extra $25 for each foot beyond 4 feet. In the case of Sunday's whopping catch, that amounted to $375 plus whatever more Crum made from selling the skin to a dealer.

"I’m not a killer. I’m more of a protector," insisted Crum. "I’ve actually never killed one personally. Even if I catch a spider in my house, I’ll take it outside and set it loose."

He said he generally camps out in the Everglades for five days of the week then returns home for two days to work at his orchid business in Venice.

Out of the 81 snakes caught between the start of the program on April 1 and May 10, Crum bagged two of the largest, with a 15-f00t-plus snake in addition to the larger one he caught at the Francis Taylor Wildlife Management Area off Route 41. He also caught two smaller snakes. And he still has a chance to catch more snakes before the pilot program ends on May 31.

Once relegated to only Everglades National Park and Miami-Dade County, recent tracking shows the pythons are moving westward into locations like Big Cypress National Preserve and Collier County and northward into Broward and Palm Beach counties.

As part of a 2015 University of Florida study, researchers released 95 adult marsh rabbits in areas known to harbor pythons. Within 11 months of their release in the Everglades, the study found that pythons accounted for 77 percent of the rabbit deaths, reducing prey for native species.

Crum will be featured on the History Channel's "Swamp People Everglades," which is scheduled to air on May 18 at 9 p.m. The episode is aptly named "Monster in the Dark."

His unconventional hunting style is as much a reflection of his sense of fair play as it is a desire to leave a lasting mark on the Everglades and its delicate ecosystem that has been ravaged by Burmese pythons.

"Anybody can walk up to them with a shotgun and shoot them. To me, that’s just not the right the thing to do. I want it to be a fair fight," he told Patch. "If it’s too strong or too powerful, and it gets away, then it’s the snake's day. The snake doesn't have a knife or a gun, so I don’t feel like I should have one."

Watch video of Dusty Crum capturing the 16-foot-10-inch Burmese python:

Photo and video courtesy of Dusty Crum