Burmese Python

Snake hunters will wrangle invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades during Florida's 10-day challenge

The Florida Wildlife Commission, who hosts the yearly event, aims to bring public awareness of the harms of invasive species in Florida with this event and engage the public in Everglades conversation through incentive-based hunting.

Burmese pythons are hunted and euthanized in the Florida Everglades due to being an invasive species. Some countries farm python to eat and Australian researchers say its the best meat for the planet. State officials don’t recommend eating python from the Everglades because they contain dangerous amounts of mercury.

Environment

Pythons are eating the Everglades. Could eating them instead help fight climate change?

Ashley Miznazi | Miami Herald

Burmese pythons are hunted and euthanized in the Florida Everglades due to being an invasive species. Some countries farm python to eat and Australian researchers say its the best meat for the planet.

A 10-year effort is now published in the journal Management of Biological Invasions by wildlife biologists from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences revealing how a series of efforts and strategies led to successful control and removal of spectacled caimans in the Eastern Everglades. The animal resembles a smaller American alligator<br/>

Environment

Blueprint created for invasive species removal in Everglades

Tom Bayles

A coordinated series of efforts over 10 years to eradicate the spectacled caiman from the Western Everglades resulted in the removal of 251 of the creatures.

Jake Waleri of Naples, right, and friends caught this 19-foot Burmese python in the Big Cypress National Preserve earlier this month, setting a world record for the longest snake of that species ever caught. The capture perhaps rid the Everglades of one of the original snakes to escape captivity in the 1990s and invade the River of Grass, where they are creating environmental havoc today. Friend Stephen Gauta helps hold up the snake after the duo brought the beast to the Nature Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples to have it measured and donated for studies

Environment

Naples man captures 19-foot Burmese python in Big Cypress; confirmed as a world record

Tom Bayles

Naples resident Jake Waleria, who is 22 and an amateur python hunter, caught a world-record 19-footer with some friends earlier this month in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

A Burmese python coils around the arm of a hunter during a news conference in 2010 in the Florida Everglades. New research suggests that the pythons won't spread through the American Southeast, as previously believed.

Environment

Python invasion has exploded out of the Everglades

An ambitious new paper produced by the U.S. Geological Survey found that the python population has exploded in only 20 years from a few snakes at the southern tip of Everglades National Park to an invasion that envelops the southern third of Florida.

Donna Kalil, a Python Elimination Specialist with the South Florida Water Management District is at the center of the documentary "Python Huntress" being featured in this year's Miami Film Festival.

Arts & Culture

Sundial: This 'Python Huntress' loves the snakes she has to kill

Carlos Frías

Donna Kalil, a Python Elimination Specialist with the South Florida Water Management District, is at the center of the documentary "Python Huntress" being featured in this year's Miami Film Festival.

Want to hunt pythons in Florida this summer? This professional has tips

Jaclyn Diaz

Registration has opened for Florida's annual python hunting challenge. The competition is not for the faint of heart.

Merrick’s contested history, a potential HIV cure and Wildlife Thursday: Python hunting and baking

Caitie Muñoz

The segregationist past behind the founder of 'The City Beautiful.' A New York cancer survivor becomes the third person to achieve remission from HIV. And it’s Wildlife Thursday, we’re talking about removing pythons … and using their eggs for a tasty cookie recipe.

FWC Python Coordinator McKayla Spencer demonstrates a python capture.

Gov. DeSantis Announces Registration for 2021 Florida Python Challenge

Kristin Moorehead

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the opening of registration for the python challenge, at a press conference Thursday.

Hunters Kill Record Python In Florida Everglades

WUSF Staff

The female was nearly 19 feet long.

Environment

To Build A Better Python Trap, Researchers Brave Smothering Ferns, Murky Swamps and Hungry Gators

Jenny Staletovich

On a steamy August day, Frank Ridgely stands inside a chilly surgical suite at Zoo Miami, preparing to slice into a seven-and-a-half foot-long Burmese…

The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board agreed Thursday to double its number of hunters who are trying to eradicate invasive Burmese pythons. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Florida Doubling Down On Killing Invasive Burmese Pythons

News Service of Florida

The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board agreed Thursday to double its number of hunters who are trying to eradicate invasive Burmese...