Overview
- The 10-day competition, which began Friday, July 10, runs through July 19 and offers more than $25,000 in prizes including a $10,000 grand prize for the participant who removes the most pythons.
- The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is leading the event with partners such as the South Florida Water Management District and Everglades National Park and is keeping registration and required online training open through the final day.
- Contest rules require hunters to carry proof of registration, complete online training, keep carcasses chilled or frozen and turn them in to a check station within 24 hours while prohibiting firearms and the use of dogs.
- Annual contest removals are a small part of a larger effort: roughly 1,400 pythons have been removed during all Python Challenge events to date, 294 were taken in 2025, contractors have removed more than 16,000 since 2017, and state records show over 27,000 removals since 2000.
- FWC permits year-round python control on 32 commission-managed lands and allows landowners to humanely kill pythons on private property without a permit, emphasizing that the contest aims both to remove snakes and raise awareness about their threat to native wildlife.