Swamp People

Swamp People is an American reality series that was first broadcast on History on August 22, 2010. The show follows the day-to-day activities of Louisiana natives living in the swamps of the Atchafalaya River Basin who hunt American alligators for a living.

The program's seventh and final season premiered on February 8, 2016.

Format

Alligator season in Louisiana begins on the first Wednesday in September and lasts for 30 days. In this time, many of the alligator hunters, following a tradition dating back 300 years, earn most of their yearly income in a high risk vocation dependent on experience and the whims of weather within strict regulation by wildlife laws. Hunters are each issued a certain number of tags that must be attached to their kills; once they "tag out" (run out of tags), their season is over, and they may no longer kill any more alligators for the rest of the season. During this 30 day window, some of these hunters earn most of their annual income culling alligators; therefore, the ultimate goal for the alligator hunters is to tag out before the season ends. Most of the hunters spend the rest of the year harvesting other species (fish, crawfish, shrimp, crabs, raccoons, turtles, etc.) to augment their yearly incomes and/or holding down full-time jobs in other industries.