Mohammad Asghari is one of 2,600 applicants worldwide seeking to become a python removal agent. A native of Iran, Asghari owns more than 70 snakes and has long dreamed of working with snakes professionally.

WEST PALM BEACH (AP) — When Florida issued a call for python hunters, applications came in from near and very, very far — Iran, for instance, where one man sees a chance to fulfill his childhood dream.

Mohammad Asghari is one of 2,600 applicants worldwide hoping to become a “python removal agent” with the, an effort that aims to control the state’s booming Burmese python infestation. The python elimination program tripled its budget earlier this year to approximately $1 million, expanded to include six counties and will double its contracted hunters to 50.

Asghari spent his youth catching vipers in the mountains by his home in Tehran. He kept the venomous snakes in a plastic box and enjoyed playing with them.

“My parents always opposed this,” said Asghari, 38.

Though Asghari currently works as an electrical engineer in Iran, his real passion is snakes — “the most beautiful animal,” he said. He owns more than 70, including dozens of boa constrictors and Burmese pythons, many of which he bought illegally through the black market. He posts the pets on his Instagram, @Iran.Snake and occasionally sells them for a 15 percent markup.

Asghari, who communicated with the Miami Herald on What’s App, believes he would be an excellent python removal agent because he is very familiar with Burmese pythons.

“They can’t hurt me at all,” he said. “I fully understand their behavior.”

Statistically, it is easier to get into Harvard than to become a python removal agent. But the job doesn’t pay much: $15 an hour on a one-year contract with no healthcare benefits.

There are, however, bonuses for each snake, and some perks that would likely appeal to many of the people applying, including an access key to “exclusive gated areas” in nature preserves, a special app to log their work on their phone, and a badge. They can hunt on state lands anywhere south of Lake Okeechobee.

The job also comes with “the excitement of finding pythons,” said Rory Feeney, land resources bureau chief for the South Florida Water Management District. Feeney is tasked with reviewing applications that have poured in since the expansion was announced in August.

“There are a lot of qualified individuals out there,” said Feeney. “I look for people who have regional experience, who know the Everglades, who care about the Everglades.”

The python removal agent application had a few restrictions for candidates. They had to be over 18, sign a waiver of liability and never have been convicted of a felony. A space for additional comments gave applicants an opportunity to make an impression and stand out.

One Canadian man noted in his that he had “trapped bears.”

Another, from Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, admitted he had no experience hunting pythons but expressed enthusiasm to learn: “I am willing to do the job, I could email my resume if needed.”

Haider Hussain, a retiree from Alberta, Canada, who also applied, told the Herald that he had developed a “cost effective trapping method” after nine months of research. He said it would lure pythons in as they searched for food, but he declined to offer more information “because the Chinese are listening” and the design might be stolen before he could patent it. He said the trap would be a more efficient process than hunting in the Everglades.

“Twenty guys running around 10,000 square kilometers, how the hell are they going to catch anything?” said Hussain, 69, a former banker. “(The python) should be trapped rather than pursued.”

People running around the Everglades have actually been the most effective way to catch pythons, according to a September presentation from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which also runs its own python hunting program. The data show a marked increase of hundreds more python removals per year since the Python Elimination Program began in 2017 in Miami-Dade County. The program now also operates in Palm Beach, Hendry, Collier, Broward and Monroe counties.

The problem is not new, as pythons have run — slithered — rampant in the Everglades since the 1960s, as the exotic pets escaped or were released into the wild. Hurricane Andrew destroyed a python breeding facility in 1992, further accelerating the python problem >>>