the weeds and take it into custody. >> reporter: we found one on the side of the heavily traveled road while tagging along with the wildlife special lift, joe. >> yeah, baby! >> look at the size of this, huh? >> reporter: the nature conservancy taught park, police and utility workers how to catch them. not easy. the fear was these invasive species were overrunning the everglades. they numbered perhaps 100,000 and spreading out. that was last summer. now, suddenly, the snakes have disappeared. something changed. a state-sanctioned one-time python hunting season is under way. but no one is catching much of anything. >> like i always tell everybody, it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack when looking for the snakes. >> reporter: and the everglades is one big haystack. josh hunts pythons. we've been out with him twice slogging through the glades. >> look at this mud we're going through now.