Bill Booth struggles to recall the last time he saw a raccoon, a fox or a rabbit on one of his frequent hunting excursions deep into the swamps of the Florida Everglades. An outdoorsman all his life, he knows as well as anyone how the native wildlife once abundant across the vast wilderness has been all but wiped out by an invasion of a deadly species he is trying his hardest to remove: the Burmese python.

By some estimates, up to 150,000 of the unwelcome intruders are swimming through the state’s 1.5m acres (600,000 hectares) of waterways, reproducing uncontrollably and consuming almost every living creature in their path, sometimes taking on even the previously undisputed king of the Everglades, the American alligator.

It’s a growing problem that has led wildlife officials to conceive ever-more colourful attempts to try to eradicate, or at least contain, the giant snakes. With varying success, efforts have included training dedicated sniffer dogs, bringing in snake hunters from India’s mountain-dwelling Irula tribe, and, most recently, advertising for minimum-wage civilian python-catchers on a two-month contract for a hunt beginning in April.