Mike Kimmel, who goes by the social media handle Trapper Mike, shared the moment to his TikTok account earlier this week, with the caption: “Thanksgiving in Florida.”
In the video, which has racked up more than 2.6 million views in four days, Kimmel’s mother is seen using her whole body weight to pull the giant snake out from the back of the parked car. Kimmel comes to her aid by threading the snake, whose head is poking out of one of the rear wheels, back through the wheel.
Their joint effort proved successful and the snake was freed, sending the woman backwards as it recoiled.
“Nice job, mom,” said Kimmel. He was less lucky, however.
An off-camera voice can be heard asking: “Mike, you just got bit, what are you doing?”
But Kimmel is far from an amateur, as demonstrated by the content on his account @pythoncowboy. He regularly hunts and catches invasive species in the Everglades.
In Florida, there is growing concern over how Burmese pythons are spreading across the state.
Last week, the invasive snake was officially sighted in the north of Florida after years of speculation, meaning the population is likely growing.
“We have finally, unhappily, sighted a Burmese python in the interior of the refuge,” Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor and head of the Croc Docs research team in Fort Lauderdale, told The Palm Beach Post.
These pythons are not native to Florida and were brought to the U.S. in the 1980s as exotic pets. The state allows people to remove and humanely kill the pythons on private land. Removal agents even receive bounties for every snake euthanized in designated areas.
Florida’s snake problem was mentioned by many of the TikTokers commenting on Kimmel’s video. One user wrote: “Minnesota isn’t so bad anymore.”
Not all Sunshine State residents are as brave as Kimmel’s mom. One commenter posted: “I live in Florida and that would be a hard pass for me. They can keep the house, car, everything.”
Another TikToker asked: “Can we please applaud this queen for pulling this giant snake in flip flops and her apron?”
In September, a Florida man went viral for his casual encounter with an alligator.
Eugene Bozzi, an army veteran from Philadelphia, was dubbed a hero online after he was filmed using a trash bin to catch the animal in his front yard—all while wearing sliders.
Update 11/27/21 10:02 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to remove the TikTok video.