by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
NAPLES, Fla. — Spending time in Florida broadens one’s perspective on life. It introduces a wide variety of new contacts — an Italian-American who knows who can fix what, where to get any kind of food and who to call for the best deal, a retired contractor who grew up in Amsterdam in the 1940s and remembered Nazis taking the city who immigrated with his parents at 8 to grow up in New York to become a proud new American citizen, a woman sharp shooter that travels the globe to compete in gun meets, a cleaning lady that managed to come over from Mexico and get a job that sends half her paycheck back to poor relatives back home, a Scotsman from Toronto who immigrated to Canada where he started his own business, a waitress from Macedonia so grateful to get to the United States that is working on earning citizenship — the list goes on and on.
Amid this human potpourri is a writer from Urbanna hoping to meet and hear stories from as many people as possible and noting one thing in common. Gratitude that we or our ancestors were able to leave the “old country” and become “Americans,” free to pursue our individual definition of happiness.
What some people define as happiness can astound. Two native Floridians known as “Trapper Ray and sidekick, Helm” have formed a profitable business hunting down dangerous animals that lurk in the swamps and marshlands. They came to Windstar to describe their pursuit of happiness. These two men are real tough guys, not your average banker or lawyer, and it was a treat to hear their stories.
Wildlife must be controlled so that no species gets the upper hand and eradicates the others. Windstar has almost 600 acres consisting of Naples bayfront, Gulf coast, mangrove preserve and 16 brackish lakes that feed into the bay. It’s a perfect environment to many species that live close together and must share the land.
Some are not only dangerous and pervasive like alligators, crocodiles, (yes, there are “crocs” in Florida) iguanas and Burmese pythons. The latter has almost decimated raccoons, squirrels and other small animals.
The trappers are registered and licensed and they help keep our alligator population under control. Alligators are protected so trappers must “trap and release,” unless there is evidence an alligator is aggressive and dangerous to the community.
For example, a “normal” alligator sees human beings and leaves an area but if an alligator approaches and begins circling with his pop eyes watching the human on shore, it’s deemed dangerous. Ray told us this sometimes happens simply because people feed alligators (hard to believe anyone would be so inclined!) so when they see a human, they swim right over to get a handout.
It is not generally known, but I can attest that alligators roar if angry or during mating season. And I do mean roar. It’s a frightful sound. One night I heard a terrible roar from the lake, one gunshot and then silence. I was sure someone had trapped a gator illegally and then killed it for its valuable skin. “He would be arrested and sent to prison,” Ray said. “It’s a crime to alligator poach but like every other law, people break laws to get money.”
The way they trap alligators is hook them with huge hooks and then pull them to shore, truss them, bind their mouths and truck them to another habitat. The point is to remove aggressive alligators from areas with humans, dogs and cats. Alligators are especially dangerous to dogs that get too near the shore.
Helm specialized in pythons. An Army vet with military service in the Middle East, he was perfectly suited to hunt Burmese pythons. Because pythons are non-native to Florida and have no natural enemies in the Sunshine State, their population must be controlled. Florida now pays a bounty by the foot for every snake killed.
Helm goes into the swamps at night with a light and walks through the jungle until he sees the tell-tale incandescent brown and yellow skin that sparkles under the light. He “tails the snake “by grabbing it and doing a “snake dance” as the snake tries from left or right to strike him. He “dances” away from the strike until finally the snake tires and then he captures it, killing it with one humane blow with a knife to the brain.
His limit in a “dance partner” is 16 feet because if the snake gets his body wound around him, there is little chance for his survival. “Never go python hunting alone because when you need help escaping from a python, you want to be sure someone is there,” he said, the understatement of a lifetime.
The moral of the story is this: If you ever feel like complaining about your job, just think of Helm at night dancing with a python.
(This is the fifth in a special continuing series.)
© 2022.
