Local photographer follows pythons for TV show

The local St. Augustine news desk learned that resident, Kevin O’Brien, spent the hottest part of last summer chasing pythons in the Everglades and tonight his work may be viewed in an episode of “Explorer”.

National Geographic is airing the show, “Python Wars” tonight at 10 p.m. on National Geographic Explorer on the National Geographic channel.

“You’ll get to see my daughter Charlotte attacked by a 12 foot live python,” O’Brien said.

The Burmese python, one of the largest, most powerful snakes in the world, has established a breeding population in Florida’s Everglades – and soon, the snakes will be poised to spread to other areas in the United States.

One of the problems is that people are trying to keep these wild reptiles as a family “pet”. They start life as 20-inch-long hatchlings; but within a few years swell into 12-foot animals that require frequent feedings and expensive cages.

In an effort to control the release of pet pythons into the wild, the state of Florida has just initiated a controversial program requiring python owners to acquire licenses and insert microchips into their pets.

Watch as scientists plot a counteroffensive, even as they’re still making discoveries about the basic biology of these massive serpents.

As pythons radiate out from the Everglades, the Florida Keys may be the next front of the python war. Some experts believe that the snakes are swimming across miles of open water to Key Largo.

The biologists waging this “python war” have one objective: to preserve the ecological balance of the Everglades.

O’Brien holds the Cinematography credit for this National Geographic Explorer episode and previously worked as Director of Photography on the film “Soldiers of Conscience” which aired on PBS in 2008.

Photo credit: © 2010 Historic City News contributed National Geographic Television photograph