A female Burmese python lays up to 100 eggs at once. After years without control in the Florida Everglades, the state has brought out the big guns again: a hunting contest with a $10,000 prize for whoever eliminates the most snakes.
The Florida Python Challenge 2026 opens registration starting at $25 and already has clear rules: no firearms, mandatory humane euthanasia, and exactly 10 days, from July 10 to 19, to hunt as many pythons as possible. Last year, Taylor Stanberry took home the grand prize after eliminating 60 specimens with their own hands, while 934 hunters from 30 states and Canada achieved a record of 294 dead pythons.
The snakes entered the ecosystem through the exotic pet trade and a hurricane in 1992 that, according to reports, released dozens of them into the wild. With no natural predators except humans, they now silently devour Florida’s native wildlife.