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Florida Python Challenge registration opens

By Nancy Gay
Published  May 30, 2024 5:47pm EDT
FOX 13 News

MIAMI, Fla. - Registration for the 2024 Florida Python Challenge officially opened on Thursday.

The annual competition, which helps remove invasive, non-native Burmese pythons from seven Commission-managed lands in south Florida, runs from August 9 – 18. It is open to both professionals and novices.

The person who removes the most pythons will win $10,000. Additional prizes will be awarded in the professional, novice, and military categories. 

Burmese pythons threaten Florida's ecosystem, including native wildlife, and prey on native Florida species of mammals, birds and reptiles. 

"Thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis and our partners with the South Florida Water Management District, FWC is once again hosting the world-famous Florida Python Challenge®," said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Executive Director Roger Young. "This event allows the public to get involved in protecting our native wildlife while competing to win thousands of dollars for their efforts removing Burmese pythons from our iconic Florida Everglades ecosystem, a place like nowhere else on Earth."

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - MARCH 23: McKayla Spencer, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation as the Interagency Python Management Coordinator, works with a Burmese python used to train dogs to detect them in the Florida Everglades on March 23, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is using the dogs to sniff out Burmese pythons. A black lab named Truman and a point setter named Eleanor hunt five days a week with a dog handler and an FWC biologist to search for pythons on different public lands across south Florida. The FWC is implementing dog sniffing python hunters to help find and eliminate invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades ecosystem. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - MARCH 23: McKayla Spencer, with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation as the Interagency Python Management Coordinator, works with a Burmese python used to train dogs to detect them in the Florida Everglades on March 2

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Last year, 209 invasive Burmese pythons were removed from the Everglades and a total of 917 have been removed as a result of the Florida Python Challenge to date.

In 2023, 1,050 people from 35 states and Belgium registered for the 10-day competition.

In addition to the yearly challenge, python removal opportunities exist year-round on 32 commission-managed lands.

READ: FWC captures massive Burmese python in Everglades

Pythons can be humanely killed on private lands at any time with landowner permission. No permit or hunting license is required. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says it encourages people to remove and humanely kill pythons from private lands whenever possible.

A 12-foot (3.65m) Burmese python that was captured in the backyard of a home slithers on the ground at its new home at the A.D. Barnes Park 10 October 2005, in south Miami, FL. The snake was captured 09 October and is the prime suspect in the disappearance of a 15-pound (6.8kg) cat that lived at the residence. AFP PHOTO/Robert SULLIVAN (Photo by ROBERT SULLIVAN / AFP) (Photo by ROBERT SULLIVAN/AFP via Getty Images)

A 12-foot (3.65m) Burmese python that was captured in the backyard of a home slithers on the ground at its new home at the A.D. Barnes Park 10 October 2005, in south Miami, FL. The snake was captured 09 October and is the prime suspect in the disappe

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Since 2000, more than 21,000 Burmese pythons have been reported to the FWC as removed from the environment.

All participants in the Florida Python Challenge are required to read the rules and take required online training and must receive a passing quiz score of 85% or higher.

Click here to learn more and register. 

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