Invasive Animals You Can Actually Get Paid To Hunt (2024)

Pythons

Bounty:$50+ per snake plus minimum wage ($8.25/hour)

Where: Southern Florida

Why: Pythons are often purchased as pets and cared for by their owners, but after a while, they don't want them anymore. Instead of finding the snake a new home, most people just let it free in the wild, and it's become a serious problem in southern Florida.

Pythons have bred uncontrollably in the Everglades, and because they have no natural predators there, they have become destructive to the native wildlife. Florida has placed a bounty on the snakes, which can bepaid in a number of ways. Hunters are paid minimum wage while they hunt pythons, and they receive $50 for 0-4' with an additional $25 per foot after that.

Bounty:$5 per hog& $0.40 per pound of meat

Where: Texas

Why: Feral hogs are one of the most hunted animals in Texas due to their meat, and the sport involved in hunting them, but that's not the only reason hunters go after hogs. Several counties in Texas will pay a bounty of $5 per pig, and that can add up pretty quick.

Hogs breed remarkably fast, so there are tons of wild pigs out there to hunt. They are the subject of a bounty due to the damage they cause to crops, often completely destroying plantswhen they feed. The nuisance to farmers is enough to regularly land feral hogs on bounty boards.

Coyotes

Bounty:$25 to $75 per tail

Where: Throughout the United States, especially in places like Utah and South Carolina.

Why: Coyotes may look like dogs, but they're far from man's best friend. Like the Australian dingo, coyotes are a breed of feral dogs related to the Grey Wolf, and they aren't domesticated. They tend to eat a lot of small animals, including rabbits, mice, and rats, but they become a pest when they raid the chicken coop.

Bounties are quite common for coyotes, and depending on the area you go afterthem in, you could walk away with quite a bit of cash. Every state has a different way of handling coyotes, so make sure you follow the local rules and regulations before you start hunting them.

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Bounty:1 – 25 fish $5 each,26 – 200 fish $6 each,200+ fish $8 each

Where: Pacific Northwest

Why: Pikeminnow are an introduced species in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, where they have destroyed a great natural resource in the area: salmon. The salmon fishing industry is huge in the Pacific Northwest, and pikeminnows love to eat their babies.

Because of this, the pikeminnow has been targeted for bounties numerous times, and the states have paid out thousands to anglers who catch them. Don't let the picture fool you; they can grow up to 25 lbs., making it possible to reel them in on a fishing line.

Bounty:$5 per corpse

Where: Louisiana

Why: Nutria are a species of rodent that can grow up to 20 lbs when they reach full size. They look a little like giant rats, and they have been targeted for bounty due to their desire to eat plants down to the roots.

This has caused widespread erosion along the Louisiana coastline, and because the animals are introduced (non-native), they have devastated the ecosystem. The state launched a bounty of $5 for each animal killed, and the state haspaid out nearly $2 million since 2014, it's apparent that Nutria are prolific in the area.

Skunks

Bounty:$10 to $150 per tail

Where: Illinois, South Dakota, and other areas around the US.

Why: There aren't a lot of people who like skunks, and there's a good reason for it. They can spray a human if they feel threatened, but more often than not, they're going to spray your dog, and that good boy or girl is going to spread that stink all over you and your house.

In Vernan Hills, a suburb near Chicago, hunters were offered a bounty of $75 per skunk removed from the area. Skunks were also included in South Dakota's Nest Predator Bounty program.

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