The alligator-hunting reality series Swamp People has been so popular it's created a congregation of "weekend warriors" who are ending up wounded.
Swamp People star Troy Landry, who has been hunting alligators for 30 years in south-central Louisiana, says the Foxtel series on the A&E channel has drawn out amateur game hunters.
Landry and his sons Jacob, Chase and Brandon are among some 2200 licensed hunters who "harvest" wild alligators in the Atchafalaya Basin, the river swamp in the US, each September.
The bag limit varies for each licence and can be anywhere from 15 to more than 400, which is what Landry is permitted, on average, to kill every year.
The number of alligators harvested in the wetland is governed by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).
The LDWF website says the species is a "commercial, renewable and natural resource". It estimates the state has two million wild alligators.
The LDWF permits 28,000 to be "harvested" each September. The raw meat and hides from the cull are estimated to be worth at more than $US11 million ($A12.28 million).
The financial reward and the thrill of the chase, highlighted on Swamp People, are attracting more and more of the dreaded "weekend warriors", Landry tells AAP over the phone from Louisiana.
"They work nine-to-five and come out on weekends and they're ending up shot and in hospital and it's not good," he says.
Ironically it was the financial side of the hunting that drew Landry into killing alligators for a living. His father was a commercial fisherman and a recreational alligator hunter.
Landry used to go out with his father fishing and on the odd alligator hunt, but never intended to make a living from killing `gators.
That changed when it became legal to sell the hides of wild alligators - something that only commercial alligator farms could previously do.
"My dad never really caught a whole bunch of alligators, his job was crab and shrimp fisherman," Landry says.
"He caught the alligator and used it for meat and when I was young you could start selling the skin, so we caught them for more than just food because we could get money off them."
Landry was lured into making the series by accident.
The A&E channel intended to make a documentary about alligator hunting, but after going out on a boat with Landry they decided instead to make a reality series.
The show is now in its fourth season on A&E. The fifth season airs in June.
It's made mini-celebrities of Landry and the rest of the hunters on the series.
Possibly more important for Landry, though, is the benefit the series has had on local businesses. There has been a big increase in tourism in Pierre-Part, the area of Louisiana where he lives.
"We now have tours of the river, alligator sight-seeing and hunting tours," Landry says.
"It's been very good for tourism... It's been an awesome experience for me and my boys."
* Swamp People screens on Fridays at 5.30pm on Foxtel's A&E channel and on Thursday at 7.30pm on 7Mate.
