WATCH NOW: 1,000th Burmese Python Captured In Everglades

HOMESTEAD, FL — Watch as the South Florida Water Management District discusses the 1,000 Burmese Python captured in the Florida Everglades. Python hunter Brian Hargrove captured the animal under the Python Elimination Program. The milestone snake measured 11 feet 2 inches in length.

"I didn't think I was going to be 1,000. I kind of was hoping I wasn't," said Hargrove, who doesn't like to kill the slithering intruders.

An average of three pythons have been eliminated per day since the program was hatched by the South Florida Water Management District to curb the python population in March of 2017.

See also: FREE Glass Of Wine When You Sign Up For Patch's FREE Newsletter

"I love snakes. I love animals so it's a bittersweet sort of thing," said Hargrove, who said he signed up to hunt pythons to protect the ecosystem.

Snake hunters earn minimum wage for up to eight hours each day plus a significant bonus for every python they find. For example, hunters receive an on-the-spot payment of $50 for pythons measuring up to 4 feet and an extra $25 for each foot measured above 4 feet. Hunters earn an additional $200 for every eliminated python nest with eggs.

"I don't like to have to put an animal down," Hargrove explained. "It's a beautiful creature. It's not their fault."

Mike Kirkland of the South Florida Water Management District said the python elimination program started a little over a year ago as a pilot with only 50 captures. Hunters were selected from more than 1,000 applicants and given access to District-owned lands in Miami-Dade County for the pilot phase and later in Broward and Collier counties as the program expanded.

"We've got the best hunters this state has ever seen," said Kirkland, the program manager. He said the average size snake captured has been 9 feet long. Half of the snakes have been females.

"We've removed potentially tens of thousands if you consider the reproductive abilities," according to Kirkland, who said it is difficult to spot any squirrels, marsh rabbits or possums around the Everglades as a result of the invasive predators.

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 predators.

Video and image courtesy South Florida Water Management District