Kym Clark was out for a casual early morning bike ride recently in a rural area near Everglades National Park, when she spotted something strange in the underbrush — the beautiful camouflage pattern of an invasive Burmese python. To most, this might be a reason to pedal faster, but Clark slammed on the brakes. She couldn’t believe her luck.
Clark, who hunts pythons as a hobby with friends and documents her adventures on her Instagram account , usually finds the invasive snakes at night along remote roadsides. To find one in broad daylight was a jackpot moment. “I was just exercising, but I’m always looking for pythons if I’m in the Everglades,” she said.
Except this one looked odd. As she crept into the underbrush, alone, for a better look, she realized why. The snake, which was about 8 feet long, was coiled around an adolescent alligator, killing it.
Clark, who lives in Delray Beach, ran back to grab the snake stick she keeps strapped to her bike. When she returned, the snake saw her and uncoiled and started to slowly slither away. The alligator seemed dead, so Clark used the stick to gently rake the snake into the open, where she grabbed it behind the head.
Now what? Clark is no stranger to handling pythons. She estimates she has caught and euthanized around 25 invasive pythons over the last 18 months. But all the gear needed to do the job properly and legally euthanize the snake — her air gun and pithing device — was five miles away, back at her car.
The st.
