Two snake catchers from an Indian tribe in Tamil Nadu have been invited by a python researcher in United States to save wildlife in Florida from Burmese pythons.
The American experts had tried everything -- snake-sniffing dogs, radio-tagged informant snakes and even hunting bounties -- before they flew in Masi Sadaiyan and Vadivel Gopal from the Irula tribe.
"Nothing was effective. But just four weeks after arriving in Florida by invitation from a University of Florida python researcher, Masi and Vadivel have wowed everyone and already captured 30 snakes!" said the US Consulate General Chennai in a Facebook post.
The duo, in their 50s, come from a tribe known for their snake tracking skills.
The snake trackers have caught 30 pythons in four weeks whereas at least 100 trained hunters had caught only 1,000 snakes in 2016.
"Masi and Vadivel are doing an incredible job," python researcher Frank Mazzotti of the University of Florida "All they need is a glint of snake and they pounce. The rest of us are usually wondering where the snake is. Next thing, we see they are holding it."
The pythons, which had escaped into the wild in 1980s, have decimated the small and medium-sized mammal population in the Everglades. There has been a 90 percent drop in sightings of raccoons, opossums and white-tailed deer.
