Florida Python Challenge Sends Hunters After Invasive Everglades Pythons

Florida’s 2026 Python Challenge is underway, putting hunters back into the Everglades to remove one of the nastiest invasive predators in the country. The 10-day competition runs through July 19 and offers a $10,000 grand prize for the most Burmese pythons removed from designated public lands, with more awards for novice and professional divisions and longest snake.

This is not a sideshow. Burmese pythons have been hammering South Florida wildlife for decades. They eat rabbits, raccoons, wading birds, deer, and even alligators. Adult pythons have few natural predators there, and females can lay 50 to 100 eggs at a time. You do not solve that with wishful thinking. You remove snakes.

The event is run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Florida Water Management District. Participants have to complete online training, pass a quiz, pay the registration fee, follow public-land rules, and humanely euthanize captured pythons. Firearms are prohibited during the competition, and Everglades National Park has additional restrictions.

That matters because invasive-species work has to be both aggressive and disciplined. The goal is not chaos in the swamp. The goal is legal, trained removal that protects native wildlife and keeps public support behind the effort.

Hunters get criticized by people who have never pulled a boot out of Everglades muck. Meanwhile, the people willing to go into that heat and actually remove invasive predators are doing conservation the hard way. Good. Keep at it.