Python Hunt

UPDATE: This year's python hunt yielded 105 pythons with the larges being 15 feet long.

Burmese Pythons Are Eating Everything

The Florida Everglades are now home to an invader that's turning the natural balance of its delicate ecosystem upside down -- the Burmese Python. These snakes are eating their way through the Everglades.  They have no natural predators and appear to be wiping out rodents, mink, rabbits, possums raccoons and deer.   

Florida's second Python Challenge for invasive Burmese pythons in Florida’s wetlands began on Saturday and ends on Feb. 14. Pythons can grow up to 18 feet in length in the Everglades.

Over 500 people registered to capture 150,000 pythons, dead or alive, on public lands in South Florida. Some authorized hunters are allowed to hunt in Everglades National Park. It is requested that contestants catch the snakes with hands. Use of “traps, bait, explosives, chemicals, smoke and motorized tools is prohibited.”

Both teams and individuals may enter the Python Challenge. The team with the most pythons at the end of the season wins $5,000, while an individual gets $3,500. Also, the hunter team with the largest individual snake will get $3,000, while the individual will get $1,000.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials say the hunt helps raise awareness about the threat invasive species pose to native Florida plants and wildlife. Pythons in particular are blamed for significant drop-offs in native mammal populations in the Everglades.

The 68 pythons snared during the first Python Challenge in 2013 provided researchers with an abundance of data, but the hunt did nothing to curb the python population.

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