Python Cowboy AKA Trapper Mike Joins the Talk Golden to Me Podcast Show Hosted by Evan Golden

you

talk

golden

to me welcome to another episode of the

talk

golden

to me video

podcast

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casing your golden TV host Evan gold and as always here at the Berman Law Group studios in Boca Raton today in the studio as You see it, you've probably seen it. on the Discovery Channel or just taking over everyone's Instagram feeds the last few months, man it's been just amazing, but in the studio there's

trapper

Mike,

cowboy

Python, and what he's doing for conservation is perfect, no I mean just for entertainment purposes, because what you do to me is It's so intriguing, it's so surprising, it's so entertaining, it's so fearless, but it's so important, and sometimes you watch these amazing videos that you're making on YouTube and you forget what's important. what you were doing to preserve the Everglades for the state. of Florida, so you are a wildlife hunter, you are hired only one to twenty-five in the state of Florida to go out and trap certain animals.

Python Direct, well we don't actually catch

python

s and they've recently hired 25 more. individuals, so it's a growing program that we like, you know we definitely need more people doing it, but we want the right people, absolutely right, so you are a professional

trapper

, you represent Martin County trapping and wildlife rescue and I learned about you personally through the Python Ball, the 2020 Python Bowl and what the Python Bowl is for viewers and listeners who don't know, and it's pretty amazing. I didn't know it was that many people, but 750 people from 20 different states across the United States came to the Everglades to see who would catch the most

python

s and who would catch the longest.

I think it had been more intense, yes, so it's a huge competition. How long does it last? It was only ten days and it was. It really wasn't the ideal ten days, you know we wanted it to be, it was too hot when we wanted it to be cold and too cold when we wanted it to be hot, something like that, but overall it turned out to be okay, eighty pythons were removed. I got ten or eight. I feel it myself and anyway it was largely successful in spreading awareness, you know, I mean, you were here having a conversation about it, so tell me, tell me about it because I'm a little uneducated, right?

Pythons are just a part of the Everglades, another animal in the food chain that exists or they are an invasive species, yes they are, so they are a non-native invasive species and the reason they are there is because you know . I suppose the core of this is the reptile trade, but it's not about people just releasing pythons. It seems like people really think that we've had pythons in the Everglades since the '70s and it wasn't a large enough population to really. affect wildlife or the ecosystem, it wasn't a problem until Hurricane Andrew came and destroyed a breeding facility that bordered the Everglades, releasing about a thousand pythons one at a time, and that was kind of, you know, no pun intended to be perfect. storm for this species to take over and take over Wow, that was, I didn't know that was a major impact from Hurricane Andrew.

Hurricane Andrew definitely had its impact on our state out of time, wow, so now these things have a numerical advantage and and these snakes have some predator no, we are the predator, you know what I mean, that's it, here and there they will fight with an alligator, an alligator could win, but from what I have personally seen, most of the time Python personally wins. I have rescued three alligators from pythons in the last two years, which

show

s how often it happens because they are simply being strangled. Yeah, an alligator might show up with a python wrapped around it and I had to separate the two and now pythons are poisonous, although no, they're not poisonous, you know?

But they have a pretty nasty bite. They have long, recurved needle-like teeth, especially on the larger ones, because they pierce straight through and you know. your natural reactions to walking away or sometimes it's Nate walking away and the teeth break in your hand you have to cut them or clench them how many times you've been bitten countless times it's at this point it's part of the job you know I'm out there when I catch one I hope to catch plus they all move at once when it's okay they all move so I try to grab it and grab a bag and keep rolling and then at the end of the night I'll take them all out and put them down but it's part of the job .

I guess that tooth there is a tooth or claw hanging from the neck. The tooth and an alligator. Analia - yeah, well, Bala Gators like you, you're saving them. Out there, that's good, yes, I sure do participate in alligator management and the state will issue tags depending on the areas that need alligator population control, which is very important conservation in Florida, so I also help with That, fearless man, have you always had? This I suppose is an animal type, but I don't want to say instinct, but you are not afraid. I mean, you're walking through the mud and then through the swamp, you don't know what's underneath you, what's grabbing you.

I mean, I like it, man. What this is all about for me is kind of like my church, you know, I'm there with myself and with God and it's just nice and I've always had a bond with wildlife and animals, particularly reptiles, so to me is kind. It's like a dream come true. Can you go out and find a wild man? Yes, sometimes, especially during the best time, the good time of the year, which is during the fall, when all the nests are hatching, all the big females come out of their nests searching. For their first meal, I usually go, you know, at least a week straight.

Can you guys change the python bowl to a different date so they are still there and not all of them are hiding? Yeah, well, you know. They do it during the winters, it's not that bad because if they do it right and we have a cold front, it's really good hunting during the day, which they don't want there to be a bunch of newbies at night, essentially, so if they did it . during the best time of the year it's all night hunting, that's why they do it that way and I think that's what you know, play and play right now, when you grab a Python, you make sure.

I see the kind of technique you have. by the tail and we're going to play a video for some of the viewers, you hold it by the tail, you see, that's the first grab, so every snake is different. I don't do that every time it's wildlife, sometimes you never know. Wind up in a 17 footer, it's tangled and there are bushes. I'm going to go straight to the head because there's no way I can. I could get that snake out of those bushes. If they are too strong, they will take you out. in the swamp, so usually I'll go straight to the head in that case, but generally yes, I'll go straight to the tail.

I like to take the snake outside or I can use it, dance around it and then wait for my moment to shoot and grab the head and then from there it's kind of a fight with it, tiring it out, it poops and sprays musk all over it. parts and what they are, what musk is, it's like their pheromones, urine and nasty things that they spray. during mating and in times of fighting, I guess it's a kind of defense mechanism, everything escapes, I don't know if it's when you grab the tail or when you grab it by the head, sometimes when you grab the tail, usually when you grab it the tail, they bend towards you and you go dancing around them and then when you really grab their head they try to constrict and really fight, that's when it all comes out and it's funny because I swear.

They hold it and wait until they can put it on you, although you will be fighting with them for 5 to 10 minutes and that moment when you let go of the tail and let it touch you, what must it smell like if I can describe the musk of a python, I really can't there's description like bad smells like money, man this is a wild and wild story, I mean when you grab him by the head, although I feel like one finger is always right next to his mouth because it's closed. There you have to look, those are the little thumbs, you are going against your instincts, you are putting your hand where it doesn't belong for sure, but you know it's you if, as long as you grab the right place, it can't.

I'll try it and it will get closer, but you know you just get the hang of it and really what happens is with the smaller snakes they're faster, they move more and you have a less small area to grab. So they are the ones I understand. Sometimes you think that the bigger the easier. That is interesting. Bigger is definitely easier, but if you get bitten, it's a lot. Now there's a telltale sign because I see when you're holding it like by the tail. Is there a telltale sign when a snake is about to attack? Because it seems like you're always one small step ahead.

Yes it's true, it's about reading their behavior with reptiles even more than with any other animal, but with wildlife in general it's about reading behavior when I train my dogs, I do it every day, I constantly read their behavior and I'm ten steps ahead of them, you have to be, and especially with snakes, you know you can see they're just going to attack. when they are coiled they usually fold in on themselves and you know you can really read their body language. Now this is what I've been. I couldn't wait to ask you this because it looks like these snakes were strangling themselves. your arms so tight and your fingers were Lewton um changing color I've never seen before how you can still hold on to that snake uh you know it's usually not too long I've had it in times where I've had to I walk without the swamp where I forgot a bag and yeah, when I take it out of my hand, like when I take it off, I can barely move my fingers because they actually turn it off and on, and it's easy to see how.

They can actually strangle something in a snake. What's just a long, huge muscle? Pretty much yeah, it's all solid muscle, solid muscle and even more than something like um. I don't know, you know? Some of your viewers may have seen or touched a rattlesnake. or I touched a dead one or something, it's more than any other snake, they're tough like rattlesnakes, kind of soft, they're solid muscles and hard as a rock and you know, I'm 150 pounds soaking wet, these 17 feet, they weigh more of 150. pounds of solid muscles, so you really have to be careful and you really have to use their weight against them and make sure you don't get tired before they do, it's a fascinating thing, people who have pet pythons right now, which is the right way when this? becomes too big or what is the right way to not leave it free.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that it is a pet Python and these wild pythons that I am catching are two totally different things, it is like a wild cat first. I know you are your pet cat at home, but myself and many other people offer shelters or rescues for anyone who has a reptile snake or any type of animal that can give it to us, we will take it so you know there is no excuse. to release them into the wild you know what I mean and if it is a pet snake that has been bred in captivity many times a zoo will even accept it, unfortunately zoos will not accept these wild snakes that we capture because they are simply too aggressive a lot of times they don't even eat in captivity, but you know, there are definitely ways to do it now, going back to how harmful pythons are, what are they doing?

They just eat every furry animal I've heard what you said on your shows before, so tell me exactly what the pythons are doing and how devastating and detrimental it is and why, so the main thing, what was the telltale sign, is that there is a really big problem. There are a lot of pythons here, they are small wild fur-bearing mammals in the Everglades. Populations have decreased by ninety to ninety-nine percent. They don't exist now. I'll be there for weeks and you see nothing. I know, I mean not raccoons, nothing I'll say in the last two years where we really hit it hard.

I'm starting to see the wildlife recover, but, then, they hit, they hit the little wildlife with very strong fur and now, like I said, We're attacking the alligators, which is not that important, there are a lot of alligators and alligators even need management but wading birds are being attacked and their populations have always been struggling in the Everglades, we have a lot of different endangered and protective species and it's making its way up the food chain because of that, now the panthers feed exclusively on deer, they have completely wiped out the pig population which is an invasive species so that's not a big deal but the deer hit really hard again for that so it makes its way up and you know he's really devastated because they need something to eat so whatever isn't there they will replace it exactly.

Wow, wild, wild, so Python Bowl, you're the champion, like we said before. I want to get back to that because 750 people came, you know, and there were some novices, some professional hunters that people do as a career and the weather obviously didn'ta lot selling them alive. I mean, some of them are just fifty bucks extra, you know, and it's like I don't really want to kill this thing. I prefer to get it back. the ranch and make him a pet for a while and it's funny that even these wild pigs are as bad as you, they will kill you and your dog when you catch him in the woods without asking questions, what do they kill? you with the horns, but they have these big male sharks, yeah, uh-huh, and the females that they will build will nail you like a freight train and you have to be very careful, they are not domestic, what weapons do you have with you.

When you are in the Everglades, what I always carry with me: I have two knives, there are no weapons in the truck, but your clothes, when you are there, even if you don't have a weapon now, no, it's too much to carry. and you just don't need to have ever seen an endless story when that wild boar attacked a Trejo and he killed. I'm going to have to show you this clip which is some good used film. I said I'm thinking about thinking about this like a wild boar. chase you have to grab your knife and you don't want your dog to get hurt so it hurts you let my dogs be trained for this so they come first that's their job that's why I have them essentially and you can Tell him that It was born to them, it's all they want to do.

They know that's what they do. If you put them in the house and tried to turn him into a couch dog, they wouldn't be happy, but yes, you know, dogs. They take out, they're trained, most of them like my lead dog's moves, he's actually with me now in the truck, they've gotten over him you know, so he's ready for battle and he's the one that really hits the pig, he He takes the brunt of the force and he holds the pig there until I get there. I can turn the pig over, tie it up, and then drag it away. from our viewers listeners had some questions for you I hope you don't mind one of our viewers said I'm having a problem with something I feel like a cane toad What is it?

How do I know how serious this is? They wanted about a cane toad yeah they're toxic to your dogs they're toxic to anything really how do you know so if they're in Florida I'm not sure where they are we have a native toad that looks very similar and it may even become similar on the inside, but the cane toad in particular, they are browner and they had these huge oval toxic glands right behind their eyes, kind of like on their shoulders if they had shoulders and they would actually produce a white milky substance like a mite if they ever touched them. or they're agitated and you know you can tell mainly by that and they also get quite a bit larger than any native toad essentially, but they're invasive, they're an invasive species, yeah, they're actually released on purpose to control pests. the cane fields, the Chicago Maine cane toad, yeah, same thing in Australia where they are an even bigger problem and in Australia they didn't even eat the beetles they were supposed to eat, I guess, wow, and it's smuggling. do you have any invasive species there, I mean, what is the list just in Florida pretty long?

It's a worthy invasive species, capital of the world, for sure, it's crazy, thousands of plants, animals that we have because it leads to rabies, you know, it's because it's the climate. and where you have the land, Miami we are a big central hub where everything comes through us to the United States and you know it essentially comes from the old cocaine days, you know, I mean all these old drug lords that they glorified having these exotic animals, these exotic reptiles, so they were important, all this and business was booming and you had all the big breeders and importers here in Miami or in the Everglades.

We have another question from one of our Stacey listeners. She said: I know you love owls. I saw a photo online of an owl that had huge, long, long legs. Is it true that owls really have long legs? Yes, yes, they do, they're usually covered by their feathers and all that. We rescued a great horned owl, which is definitely the largest owl in Florida. I don't know about the United States or not, and a super awesome animal, it was like an ugly chick when we first got it, like the ugliest thing you've ever seen and then you know, after a couple of months, it was like the most impressive bird you've ever seen and yeah, it had these big long legs, big long claws and I've never seen an animal eat so much when that thing was an adult right before we released it.

Back in the wild, they ate $15 a day worth of rodents and rabbits and all sorts of things. It was wild. He ate chicks, rats and rabbits whole. I think every day he ate a rabbit and at least one or two rats. She lives in a cage but Kate knows she just lives and we had a big screened porch she was basically just hanging out and you would drop live rodents and she would fall oh no they're all dead four dozen yeah yeah. but we did it, we trained him to hunt, we would take him out and get some live ones and shoot them and let him dominate the mouse and do all that and before we released him, we actually released him like in my parent community and he would go around and hunt I eat rabbits in the community and I would go up on people's porches and just destroy them and like people would call and say I need a trapper, I got a pesky owl and I left. there they respond and say oh and they come to know how to fly by and they would be surprised when they thought that I was like dr.

Dolittle, when the owl came right at me, you know, that's cool, that's amazing, it was like out west with other owls and actually released them into the bush wildlife. I might have seen those kind of massacres where I think one time something ate something like a white thing on my lawn. I just saw feathers with blood as if they were rinsed. Yeah, I was like what happened here. I think I have a photo from my phone. I want to show you this new error. Oh, I know exactly what's amazing. man, I could talk to you for hours and hours because what you are doing is very important to me and I have never met anyone as brave as you.

I think most people see a hole in a strange place in the ground, they're not sticking their hand in there, you're like I have to see what's in there and you stick your hand in, but there could be anything in there, yeah I mean , I'm not going to put my hand in any hole, I see. I think there's something there, yeah, you're getting it, pretty crazy story, but listen, that's how you eat the survivor, you're making a living, but you're also helping, you're helping our communities, your helping in our country that you are helping the geographic region of the earth, so you are serving a very important purpose, which is what I applaud you man, I appreciate you doing the best I can, yeah, yeah, and I think more and more people are learning What you are doing.

It's very important, you know, and it's just wild to me and legally, can you? Can you continually go out and get pythons? There is only a certain time of year. Not all year. They are invasive species. There is no bag limit, as long as you are. do it legally, do it illegally, illegally, so you can't shoot them where you're not allowed to use a firearm, in some of these areas it is allowed, but only during certain times of the year, basically, if you're grabbing it too much with your hand and you're stabbing him in the brain.

You are legal no matter where you are, except in the national park, which the Everglades is a huge 1.5 million acre area, the national parks are just a small part of it. so you have to make sure you're not in Everglades National Park and unfortunately you're in Big Cypress National Park, if you're there, they don't like you touching even the invasive species, which I don't necessarily agree with. with, but that's how it is, so we have to respect it. Got it, we're talking to Trapper Mike, Cowboy Python, as always, all of our guests, when they come to the talk, let me show you, you have to play a quick little game that we call word. per word it's pretty simple I'll explain the rules to you only once even if I say a word you say the first word that comes to mind you can't obviously repeat the same word you have to be brutally honest don't cheat don't lie producer give me that little game show with music in the background when we play this game okay okay rapper

mike

cowboy

python say the first word that comes to mind are you ready musk python swamp truck iguana mango , marsh duck, PETA, that mud, boo, honey badger. rough wild moves pig moose poison moccasin toad cane toad iguana mango strangles Python and the cowboy fight there he is, word for word with traps like the cowboy Python killing him in the talk will be an amazing

podcast

show talking to the man it's just great what you do and it seems like you have a lot of fun doing it, I'm sure I have a lot of fun doing it.

I get nervous because now you're going to be in the Everglades for ten days, man, well, I wanted to bring you like it's dinner. I loved you. to return as many dances as Can I bring you something? Bring it, never get lost out there. You know all the back roads and everything. If you know. It's usually when I'm on a dike. I mean, it's for most areas. It's Olevia, it stretches outwards, you can't get too lost unless you go off the dike, which I often do, but I have a handheld GPS and I'm careful because you have to go off the dike, it's just that sometimes you find the real thing. .

I mean not everything is fine on the dam or there are more animals next to the dam. Honestly, dams are the best way to hunt. You can cover most of the ground. They are attracted to the dam. There are many animals shipped. You can see them. It's better to extort a little. outdoors, but sometimes the dam doesn't happen and I'm there for a few days anyway, I park my truck and go out and try to find it, it's a lot harder to hunt and it's a lot less productive, but sometimes that's your only possibility, so you do it and you make it harder for yourself because you are so committed to education that you set up cameras and videos so that you are not only hunting, but you are also safe. that you are documenting to educate, yes it's going to be a tough time, someone is probably scaring something when you're trying to do the right thing, yes I've missed shots before you know it, shots at an animal I'm trying to take before and things like that.

I try that, you know, do it where it doesn't interfere and usually it doesn't interfere at all, but I definitely have to go a little more careful and slow because of that, all the guests on the show always liked it, we like it that they provide. some nuggets of gold some words of wisdom educate our viewers our listeners hold them in your hand please and share some words of wisdom something that you have learned in life and that you can now pass on to the viewers and listeners of the talk golden for me, show me what those nuggets are telling you, these nuggets are telling me, do what you love, sure you know, do what's important to you and what gives you a sense of pride, you don't want to end up going to work every day. and not believe what you're doing there, there are some golden nuggets from the cowboy Python Trapper Mike man.

I really appreciate you coming today, thank you so much for your education, so much insight, you are a true American guy, I admire you. You are an inspiration or a role model. I don't know if I'd go to the Everglades with you. I kept thinking I want to go out with them, but I want to, I don't know if I'm okay, yeah, let's get started. Let's start with rage, listen, that range seems the scariest. You have it there, although you must be attentive to your exits. Swooping owls, you have cane toads, you have rabid raccoons. We're talking to Trevor Mike, if you ever need his services, of course, just look.

If you find him online, it's very easy to find out that he's Martin County Trapping and Wildlife Rescue Company, but trapper Mike, cowboy Python, there's nobody better in the business, there's nobody better than him that is preserving and protecting our Everglades right here, which is literally maybe. 15 to 20 minutes of the studio right there, so what you're doing again, like I said, we applaud you, awesome, we talk to you, we know you as a person, you're a cool guy, fearless, like I said, the American tough guy but cowboy Python. Viewers and listeners, I hope you liked talking and learning from him, what a tremendous man, follow him on social media, he is the Python cowboy on Instagram, like I said, go to his website, he saw incredible things, from leather snake to Florida panther teeth and claws. cut that part out, but we appreciate you joining another episode like share, subscribe, this episode helps us bring in amazing guests like trapper Mike, cowboy Python, but we have to go, we're getting out of here.

This is the golden television of the Berman group's trapper, Mike. get out of here we go there nice cool shells amazing