NARRATOR: 63 miles north, king of the swamp Troy Landry
and his partner Pickle Wheat are taking
a day out of their season to respond
to an urgent call for help.
TROY LANDRY: If this would be any kid,
we would find the baby over here somewhere by the swimming hole.
Look at a sign.
Danger, alligators and snakes in area.
Stay away from the water.
Miss Leanne contacted me, and she's very worried.
Her little teenage kid always swimming in the river.
And every time they get into river and start to swim, 10,
15 minutes later, alligators come from both direction.
And it's a very dangerous situation.
Very, very dangerous.
Girl, what are you doing in here by yourself?
I thought they had alligators in this water.
They do, but I haven't seen any for a couple minutes.
Where's your mama at?
I think she's up at the house right now.
You're not scared to swim over here by yourselves?
No, sir, not really.
I mean, we get about a good 15 minutes,
and then they start showing up.
And then you get out, right?
Then we get out.
And we go find another hole.
Alligators are extremely dangerous around swimming
holes.
When I was younger, they were terrified of us.
And now, if you tap the water, they come up
and come straight to you.
The more people that are in the area for a long period of time,
the more comfortable they get around people.
These kids have been swimming here for a long time,
and so they getting used to them.
And that's a scary thing.
NARRATOR: As the alligator population in Florida swells,
there has been an explosion of dangerous encounters
between the prehistoric beasts and humans,
including a number of incidents involving children.
Y'all got snakes.
I've seen the sign.
We got snakes everywhere.
There's snakes everywhere?
Everywhere.
It's hard to just walk around just in the woods
because you never know what you'll find.
You don't want to have an alligator problem if you've
got a snake problem, also.
Alligators and snakes, I can recognize a dangerous situation
when I see one.
And this is definitely a dangerous situation.
I mean, Miss P., we're going to do our best to help you
all get rid of some of them.
Yes, sir, I appreciate it.
Hate seeing alligators.
Appreciate that. we can go swimming a little longer.
All right, me and Miss P., we going to work.
We're going to see what we can do for you all.
Hey, you should be back in your swimming hole, OK?
Thank you.
It's so shallow back here.
This is where the little kids come swimming.
These kids are swimming in this river.
The water is extremely low.
And the alligators are all piled up in the river where they have
a little bit of water left.
And that's where the kids are swimming.
We need to take at least seven or eight alligators out
of just this area right here.
NARRATOR: In Florida, hunting alligators on private land
such as this property is allowed year
round as long as each harvested alligator is properly tagged.
Whoa, whoa we got a jump, Peewee.
We got a tree shaking.
Oh, hold on, tight line.
TROY LANDRY: Grab the line.
Grab the line.
All right.
Watch it. He's coming through.
He's tangled up. TROY LANDRY: Grab him.
Grab him.
PICKLE WHEAT: Get the gun.
TROY LANDRY: Ooh, come here.
It's a big one.
Bring him up.
Woo, it's a big one.
[splashing]
Oh, bring him up, Peewee.
Bring him up.
Oh, watch your foot.
Don't let him bite your foot.
Let me get on this side of you.
Hurry up.
Don't move the boat, Peewee, all right?
PICKLE WHEAT: Oh my God.
Don't move the boat.
Take the shot.
[gun shooting]
Woo, it's a big one.
It's a big one.
NARRATOR: This eight-foot gator may not be a monster,
but Troy knows how dangerous they can be.
When they hungry, it don't take
a 12-foot alligator to kill a person, or a dog,
or a horse, or anything.
A seven or eight-foot alligator when he's hungry,
he can kill a kid easy.
OK, peewee, ready?
PICKLE WHEAT: Oh, yeah.
TROY LANDRY: We know they got snakes on this area.
With giant alligators right next to them,
that's a recipe for disaster.
We have to thin out the alligators in this area.
And then we definitely need to help
them get rid of these snakes.
Loose, loose line.
Grab the tree.
What we got, Peewee? What we got?
It don't look like we got nothing on here.
Nothing?
No, I don't think so.
Ooh, hold on.
TROY LANDRY: Oh, Lord, yeah, look right there.
Ooh, it's a big one.
It's a big one.
Don't move the boat.
Woo, bring him up, Peewee.
Bring him up.
Bring him up, Peewee, woo.
Scary, no?
[intense music]
Wow, oh.
Let me shoot.
TROY LANDRY: Ooh, he's right there.
Shoot, shoot.
[shooting]
Oh, good shot.
PICKLE WHEAT: A good alligator, too.
TROY LANDRY: That's what I'm talking about, baby girl.
NARRATOR: This nine-footer is one more alligator that won't
be threatening the local kids.
Roll him over on his back, 1,2,3.
Main thing, we got him out before he hurt any kid.
PICKLE WHEAT: Hopefully, them kids could swim with a lot more
ease now.
NARRATOR: But Troy and Pickle know this is just half the job.
Me and Mr. Troy, we're kind of sticking around the area.
We're going to hunt some more snakes around here.
So we're going to make a couple of circles around the area,
hunt til late tonight, and see if we're
going to find something.
We got that one out, for sure.
TROY LANDRY: Yeah, any little bit of help we can do
is going to help the Everglades.
The kids don't really-- they don't know
how dangerous it can be.
Anything could happen at any second.
And once it happens, you can't take it back.
I'm lookin'.
Look, look, and look some more.
PICKLE WHEAT: Snake!
TROY LANDRY: What?
Snake, snake!
Snake!
Go, Peewee, hurry, hurry. Where?
I never seen it. PICKLE WHEAT: Over here.
Right here.
Over here.
Right here.
TROY LANDRY: Look at the size of that thing.
Watch it, woo.
PICKLE WHEAT: Ooh, she almost gotcha.
TROY LANDRY: Man, he's protecting the kill.
We got to figure out a way to get it.
PICKLE WHEAT: OK.
You know the drill.
Got to get his tail.
There you go.
Pull him back.
Pull him back!
Either she's fast or I'm slow.
PICKLE WHEAT: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, I don't know how you spotted this thing from so far.
I'd have never seen it.
The sunlight hits them and they shine.
TROY LANDRY: You saw it shining?
Yeah.
NARRATOR: This 10-foot python is a bad sign for the local kids
and a reminder the urgency of the situation.
One, two, three.
Three, good job.
No, you good job.
We better hurry.
PICKLE WHEAT: We're losing light pretty quick.
We got to pick up the pace.
Eyes of an eagle, son.
Good job, Cinderella.
Eyes of an eagle.
TROY LANDRY: We got to hurry.