A gripping account of the python's takeover of the American South and the race to stop a devastating ecological crisis.

At night in the Everglades, men with spotlights hunt Burmese pythons - giant snakes released through the exotic pet trade that now dominate Florida's wetlands. They devour deer, bobcats, alligators and endangered panthers, driving mammal populations down by more than ninety per cent. The invasion is now moving north.

Journalist William Kearney follows the hunters, scientists, dog teams and Indigenous communities trying to slow the spread, while revealing the python as a ruthless evolutionary marvel - able to survive months without food, lay a hundred eggs, and rapidly adapt.

Blending immersive reporting, natural history and climate science, The Serpent and the South asks whether this perfect predator can be stopped before the rest of the South becomes its hunting ground.