“If they’re recognizing this invasive [species] as a food source, that’s a glimmer of hope,” agrees Adams. “That will be a piece of the puzzle, a very tiny sliver of management for maintaining healthy native species. But that alone doesn’t even come close.”

Animal dynamics won’t eradicate pythons on their own, but Taillie says neither will state hunting programs, which are at the mercy of taxpayer funding. Plus, he says, “Finding a python in the Everglades is like finding a needle in the haystack. And it’s a really large haystack. You only need a couple to survive, and then they can bounce back.”

“It’s not realistic that we’re going to get rid of all of them,” Kirkland agrees. But with the right technology, he thinks they can drive python numbers down enough that native animals will return: “The technology is updating itself every day. We’re trying to stay on the cutting edge of that.”

One of those methods is tagging pythons and tracking them to learn about their habits and to find other pythons. Miller’s team has tagged the snakes during the breeding season, when multiple males congregate around a female. “If you tag a male, he can lead you to where these breeding events are happening. And then you can remove all the snakes,” she says.

Others now tag pythons’ prey, like rabbits, raccoons, and opossums. When the snakes swallow the prey, they swallow the tag. It’s then easier to study or euthanize them. University of Florida researchers also tried putting rabbits in snake-proof cages in the Everglades to lure pythons closer to remote cameras. Nine rabbit pens lured 22 pythons over 90 days, and each stayed in the area for over an hour on average, according to a state report. “It sounds like a simple idea—and it is—but it’s also brilliant. It’s another way to get at these hidden pythons that we probably wouldn’t otherwise have found,” Kirkland says. Combining rabbit scents and remote traps might yield the same results.

Another idea referenced by the USGS paper pairs near-infrared cameras with an algorithm trained to detect the Burmese python’s unique markings. The system would display the snake onscreen as a bright white object that could be tracked in real time. Kirkland’s team has been involved in early testing, and he envisions equipping trucks and drones to find the most well-hidden invaders. “That’s still being dialed in. but it shows some promise,” he says.

USGS scientists are also wondering if gene-editing technology could help. Scientists could modify female snakes to only birth male offspring. After many years, the dearth of reproductive females would bottleneck the population. (Researchers have previously released genetically engineered mosquitoes in Florida to produce a similar population crash.) USGS scientists are exploring the feasibility of this idea, but concrete plans are still far off.

So for now, the state mostly relies on patrols like Kirkland’s. After his bout with the 17-footer back in 2018, Kirkland hauled the dead snake away in the back of his GMC, affectionately named Python 1. Five years later, he now cruises the wetlands in a new truck, Python 2. The mammals still haven’t returned. The snakes still haven’t left. But he speaks with a confidence you’d expect from a guy who grabs giant snakes by the head. “I’ve got about 20 years until I retire, and I’m really optimistic that we’re going to be in a better place by then,” he says. “But these things take time.”