Hunter Recounts Harvesting 15-Foot Snake With 5-Foot Gator Inside It Ahead Florida Python Challenge; Why Do This Reptile Need To Be Removed From Everglades?

The annual Florida Python Challenge has started. Snake hunters shared their various close encounters with the reptiles ahead of the conservation effort to save Everglades from the invasive reptile.

Snake Hunters Share Their Python Encounters

A Burmese python eats alligators. Marcia Carlson Park, a native of New England and who has lived in Florida, has been hunting pythons because she feels the need to protect the place from the reptile, but she avoids hunting them during the challenge, BBC reported

Park wished the candidates luck and said she was thankful for the global awareness the hunt brings. According to her, pythons eat everything, so there are no more raccoons or rabbits in the wild. The wild snake also eats alligators. She recounted the time when they harvested a 15-foot python with a 5-foot alligator inside its belly.

Jake Waleri, 22, is among the participants in the python hunting. According to him, he joined the Florida Python Challenge last year but dropped out because he was too far behind. This time he is determined to win the competition.

Waleri and his cousin call themselves the Glade Boys. They hunt snakes every night. To prepare themselves for the 10-day marathon, they prepare a lot of bug spray.

Last year's winners included a deaf science teacher who quickly dispatched a snake that was about 16 feet long with his bare hands, a father and son team who quickly dispatched 41 snakes and a 19-year-old who said he would use his $10,000 award to upgrade the snake-spotting lights on his truck.

What Is The Florida Python Challenge?

Florida Python Challenge is the state's annual python hunting contest. The state decided to come up with it for a reason.

There is no other ecosystem like the Florida Everglades in the world where a variety of native birds, animals, fish, and reptiles can be found. It is home to a wide range of uncommon and distinctive fauna.

Some reptiles, like the noxious Burmese python, do not belong in this ecology, though, and they are a danger to the local fauna. The Florida Python Challenge is a fun conservation initiative that works to keep these invasive, non-native snakes out of the endangered Everglades habitat and the wildlife that call it home.

The challenge has made international headlines and gained national notoriety. Hundreds of individuals have joined the conservation effort, with some participants from living in Canada, Belgium and Latvia. They are charmed by the $30,000 cash and the prospect of making a name in the snake-hunting community.

Participants must pay $25 and undergo a 30-minute training course that teaches them how to identify snakes accurately and promptly and compassionately dispatch them.

Most snake hunters must kill any python on site before bringing it to an authorized weigh station because it is unlawful to transport live pythons without a permit.

The suggested technique is known as "double-pithing," and it entails first severing the snake's spinal cord by stabbing it in the head, followed by the destruction of the brain by rotating the tool. Python hunting with firearms is also permitted, but only in specific locations where it is already legal.

It's important to identify the snakes correctly. According to event organizer Carli Segelson, anyone caught killing a local snake will be disqualified from the competition right away.

She added that they consider every removal of a single Burmese python from the Everglades ecosystem a victory because they prey on the birds, mammals and reptiles in the area.

Check out more news and information on Burmese Python in Science Times.