Loosewire's Everglades Snake Hunting Team

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
Thanks, Matt. Maintaining mystery is a very important and seemingly undervalued quality. I can certainly appreciate the desire to cultivate and maintain a mystique--keeps people interested!

Though it does run counter to his implicit request in the original post for a "team" in the hunt, describing it as "at least a two man" endeavor. Thus, letting others in on his hunt. But perhaps he's the kind of guy/gal who can take the place of two. And his "we" is royal?

Anyway, you guys are fun. Thanks for the welcome.
Exactly, Loosie has a way of living in both worlds. Personally, I tend to only live in the obscure one :rolleyes:
 

THE_RB

Joined Feb 11, 2008
5,438
Invasive species is one of biggest threat to biological diversity. Living in Australia you should know a thing or two about invasive species and the trouble they cause.
...
Thanks for the info t06afre (and also Bill). Here in Australia the snakes are native, or at least the bulk of them are. I just assumed American snakes were native too, thinking of things like rattelsnakes and pythons I have seen in movies etc although I admit the pythons were probably in a South American setting.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Yep. Rattlesnakes, copperheads, water moccasins, coral snakes along with many other non poisonous species are native here. We have a tremendous diversity of snakes and amphibians. But no pythons or boa constrictors. Some breeds of rattle snakes get rather large, but not python sized.

I saw a pretty good picture (but ugly to look at) where a python tried to eat a gator. They both lost, as the gator ripped his way out of the insides of the python just before the gator died. Talk about lose / lose.
 
We are a small operation. In Florida, during the actual production, it would just be a cameraman, an audio recordist, an assistant, and I. Basically, a four person crew who are very engaged in the subject and their work.

We are looking to film interviews and hunts toward the end of January up until the close of the competition. And, of course, we would film the results of the competition along with any follow up interviews we feel necessary.

I have a post-production team based in New York as well. If there's anything else you'd like to know or want to continue the discussion, I encourage you to e-mail me at:

812production AT gmail DOT com
 

Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
We have time to get together,I am talking to the team about you being in the

Everglades. The team has resourses that will impress you,I want the guys here to

have a posting part on this,it good for the Forum and you year round. You may

decide to do a story on moose,we have your guy here. If you want to go any

where in the world,we are there. Don't give up ,I am trying to set some thing

up. Maybe we can find you air time on T.V..

P.S. Have you heard of any of the roads that I listed, what area have you selected or

are you still looking for good locations. Did your crew sign up for the hunt. Do you have a film permit?
 
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Yes, there is time to get together. And, of course, you should consult with your team. I'm interested in these impressive resources.

I have signed up for the hunt, yes. As soon as I finalize my crew members, they will sign up as well.

As a documentary crew, we will only need to shoot where we are welcome and have release forms signed. We won't be setting up equipment in the field, so we won't need a permit, just like any tourist family coming through the parks and filming their excursion. I've seen python hunting teams shoot their own videos of captures using helmet cameras. In fact, one recently pulled out a 16 foot snake just the other day--so there's some stiff competition for everyone already.

As for the areas and locations, we go where there is action or an interesting person willing to talk. However, the competition itself is restricted to only a few (albeit large tracts of wilderness management areas). So those would be most relevant.
 

Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
I have song a name,the vision just came to me. Have you heard of the world famous

Elbo Room at Las Olas and A1A on Fort Lauderdale beach. They have four 24/7

live cameras,there are links on the Forum,if you are interested. More & More......
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
What did the snakes do to deserve that? Eat too many rats and put the rat farmers out of business?

Here in Australia snakes are generally a protected species. It's hard to image snakes as a "pest species", they are slow breeding and they try very hard to stay away from humans.
Their eating everything in our ecosystem which is extremely fragile. FL has the most species of reptiles in it then anywhere else in the world. Not to mention all the seabirds in danger, everything thats not a 9ft+ aligator is their prey. Scariest news is a scientist did a study in Northern Tennesee and put a 10ft x 10ft x 10ft area in the mountains around knoxville and brought 5 snakes from the glades up. Their 3 years old now stilll going strong reproducing in TN's climate. So if not eradicated here like wild boar your gonna start seeing em. In 08 when I was in Memphis all the locals laughed at me asking about boar. They don't have em, don't get em, don't want em. By early 09 they were showing up in farms locally.
 

Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Mark77 ,can bring the links up if he has chance, you need info on south florida

just ask,I know my way around here. My pm is full,I will have to unload some stuff.
 

Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
What if the Famous Loosewire located a snake alone and called the 1-888

number and then called you next ,would that work. I am known for working alone.
 

Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
They say if you find a live (non-native) snake,you should stand over it and

call the 1- 888 number.They would be enroute as you would be. The out come would

be the same,help if you need it. I guess you know that the people behind this hunt

makes there money filming and putting on snake shows across the country. They go

to Texas for big shows because Texas don't have the large snakes.
 
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Thread Starter

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
I'm 40 minutes from the zone,are you in the area. You need to scope out the area.

The maps can be deceiveing, you need to know in advance where your cell phone

is going to work. Fuel 24/7 locations and which roads connnect to alligator alley

(I-75-N ) east & west ........ (I-75 -S) North & South
 

maxpower097

Joined Feb 20, 2009
816
I'm looking for the man who can find the snake.
The problem is of the 800 people that registered only 48 of those were actually registered python/boa hunters with the state. If you read up on the first day you had hundreds of computer analyst wandering into the local park clicking their car alarms to make sure they didn't get lost. Heres a hint, go at 4-5am to the local airboat launches. Thats where your serious gator huntors will be. They will know where to find them and have guns to shoot em in the face. As opposed to the actual snake hunters who are gonna catch em live and collect them. (Should make better TV watchin after Honey Boo Boo!)


Also look in the area where the hurricane Andrew washed the 1000 python babies into the glades. Find out where those nurseries were and go out their. Thats where they got their main foothold. They've been here since the 70's but didn't explode till all those reptile nurseries got washed into the glade during Andrew in the 90's.
 
Thanks for the tips. I'm not from the area nor am I there right now. That's partly why I'm reaching out here where I saw some expressed interest in the hunt. I appreciate all the suggestions. And I'm sure that being there will open up a million more opportunities to engage with people. But it's also worth reaching out in advance to my arrival to forge some loose connections. If I were to just show up and say, "Hey guys, can I shadow you?" at 4 or 5 AM, I might get lucky and have some people open and willing to trust that I'm not going to capsize their boat or scare away all the animals but it's less likely than engaging in a conversation prior and showing that I am conscientious and patient. And that it's not all about getting a snake.

I'm also not only interested in the professional hunters. They're a significant part of the story but I'm also interested those computer analysts wandering about in the Everglades trying not to get lost (I like comedy). I want the story to be all-encompassing and about the people involved. Lucky surprises, failed hunts, etc. If it were just the professionals, I could just watch NatGeo or AnimalPlanet which is fine but it's been done and it loses a bit of texture. That's partly why LooseWire's suggestion that I wait for phone calls announcing captures would feel like "money shots" without the build-up or tension. It's not useless material but it lacks a certain cinema verité with that moment of lucky discovery or hard work paying off. Everything is told in the past instead of being felt in real-time. For the documentary buffs out there, it's Maysles Brothers vs. Ken Burns. Both have their place but their methods and perspectives are very different.

The reason why I reached out to LooseWire as well in the beginning is that above all I'm most interested in people from Florida professional or not who are participating in the hunt. I like that people with ties to the region with a history with the place are wanting to go out there and see if they can have some effect. It's an experimental program after all. I think that understanding their reasoning for participating in the competition would be the most enlightening.
 
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