In Florida, a python hunting competition to protect ecosystems

Burmese pythons can grow to several meters in length and are capable of swallowing an alligator . In the space of ten days, Taylor Stanberry managed to capture no fewer than sixty of them. Thanks to this feat, this American woman living in Naples, on the southwest coast of Florida, was named “big winner of the Florida Python Challenge 2025,” announces the Naples Daily News . On Wednesday, August 13, she was awarded $10,000 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Florida's public wildlife management agency.

Like more than 900 other competitors, Taylor Stanberry took part in the competition, which was held from July 11 to 20 at eight locations in Florida, including the famous Everglades National Park. The goal? To capture as many of these invasive reptiles as possible during the ten days of the competition.

“In the Florida Everglades, the Burmese python is the enemy of the ecosystem,” explains The Economist . Having arrived in the state as pets, they gradually found their way into the wild where, without natural predators, they bred and quickly proliferated. “Today, pythons are responsible for a 95% decline in the number of mammals in the Everglades,” the weekly explains.

To protect Florida's endemic species from this fearsome predator, local authorities decided to regulate the python population, and thus the Florida Python Challenge was born. But, more than a genuine measure to protect ecosystems, “it is rather a publicity stunt for Florida's conservation project,” says The Economist .

And, for participants, a guaranteed dose of adrenaline. Pythons are hunted at night and are mostly caught with bare hands. But it's also an opportunity to win some money, as each snake captured in the competition earns $50 if it's at least 1.2 meters long. And the longer the python, the bigger the reward.

But “for many hunters, the job goes far beyond the money,” adds The Economist . Kristine Bartish, a state-employed biologist who hunts pythons five nights a week, says the mission quickly becomes addictive: going out to eliminate snakes for a worthy purpose is “like an Easter egg hunt for adults.”

“According to the FWC, more than 23,500 pythons were removed from Florida's natural areas between 2000 and April 2025,” reports NBC Miami . And this year, nearly 300 specimens were removed from the swamps. “A record,” reads the website of the American network's local branch.