Florida’s Everglades have been liberated from nearly 200 invasive pythons over the past 10 days, the 2024 Florida Python Challenge revealed Tuesday as it announced winners of the event.
Grand Prize winner Ronald Kiger, last year’s runner-up, netted $10,000 for removing 20 Burmese pythons during the 10-day hunt, held to raise awareness of the threat the invasive reptiles pose to the ecosystem.
Lacking natural predators, the invasive species are ravaging native animal populations. Preying on birds, mammals and other reptiles, from alligators to deer to household pets, they are concentrated in South Florida, mainly in and around the Everglades, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Kiger was one of 857 participants from 33 states and Canada who removed 195 of the invasive reptiles from South Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. Donna Kalil, a contractor with the South Florida Water Management District, snared 19 pythons and won $2,500 in the professional category; Marcos Rodriguez won $1,500 for catching 16 pythons. Quentin Archie won a $1,000 prize for the longest python caught in the professional category, at 8 feet 11 inches.
The challenge was held last month, during hatching season. Burmese pythons can lay 50 to 100 eggs at a time, making August an ideal time to catch them before they reproduce. They pose dangers to native animals, from spreading disease to containing high levels of mercury.
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
A Burmese python is seen during the 2022 Python Challenge. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
“Over 14,000 pythons have been successfully removed by FWC and South Florida Water Management District contractors since 2017,” FWC chairman Rodney Barreto said in a media release. “This collective effort continues to have a direct positive impact on the Everglades and our native wildlife through removal and awareness.”
The battle is waged year-round but gets a boost with the annual competitions. The FWC captured its 5,000th python in summer 2020. In January the state held its 2020 Python Bowl, capitalizing on the attention drawn by the Super Bowl in Miami. That was also the year Florida introduced the first python-sniffing canine. Since 2000, more than 22,000 of the slithering serpents have been removed.
“Every invasive python that is removed makes a difference for Florida’s environment and its native wildlife,” South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Member “Alligator Ron” Bergeron said in WFC statement.
The longest one ever caught in the state as of July 2023 was a record-breaking 19-foot-long female weighing 125 pounds, wrangled by a local hunter, surpassing the 2018 record of 18 feet, 4 inches.
With News Wire Services