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2h ago

Florida Kicks Off 2026 Python Challenge With $25,000 Prize Pool

The 10-day hunt mobilizes trained participants with cash incentives to remove invasive Burmese pythons, supporting ongoing Everglades control.

Wildlife officials demonstrate how to wrangle a Burmese python during a recent media day in the Everglades.
Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
FWC staff and officials at the Florida Python Challenge Media Day on May 19, 2026. (FWC)

Overview

  • The Florida Python Challenge began July 10 and runs through July 19, offering a $25,000 prize pool with a $10,000 grand prize for the participant who removes the most pythons.
  • Organizers require registration and online training before competing and enforce strict handling rules that ban firearms and dogs while requiring carcasses to be chilled or frozen and turned in within 24 hours.
  • Everglades National Park is one of eight official competition locations and registration remains open through the final day to let more hunters join the 10-day effort.
  • The challenge supplements year-round removal programs on 32 commission-managed lands and builds on more than 27,000 documented python removals in Florida since 2000, including over 16,000 contractor removals since 2017 and about 1,400 removals from past Challenges.
  • People who spot pythons should photograph and mark the location and call the Exotic Species Hotline at 888-483-4681, and private landowners may humanely kill pythons on their property without a permit to help protect native wildlife.