A majority of the constrictors caught and counted during this year’s Florida Python Challenge were hatchlings.
“We actually moved the competition to the summer during hatchling season,” Lisa Thopson, a Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman for the annual python hunt. “This allows us to remove small pythons from the environment before they have a chance to cause real damage to the ecosystem.”
Tom Rahill won the $10,000 prize for most pythons caught — 96 — during the 10-day contest ending in mid-July. He said he caught them after finding a nest during the hunt, one he described to Fox 13 Tampa Bay as stumbling upon “a Medusa party.”
Thompson said at least 100 more juveniles were in the total count of Burmese pythons caught during the event. The invasive snakes emerge from their eggs between 16 inches and 24 inches long.
On the other end of the size spectrum was the 16-foot, 5-inch constrictor that won Rahm Levinson the $1,000 prize for the longest Burmese python.
Rahill and Levinson caught their winners in the Everglades National Park, an area only recently added to the places python hunters could search for the snakes during the competition.
The Python Challenge is held less to make a dent in the constrictors’ population than to raise awareness about the harm invasive species cause in South Florida.
Hunters have removed more than 1,600 pythons during the challenges since 2017.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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