Before 2021, the challenge was typically held in the winter, but the FWC decided to move it to July to align with\u00a0python\u00a0hatchling season. Pythons mate in late winter and lay eggs in the spring.\u00a0Females have been known to abandon their eggs\u00a0if the nest is disturbed or there\u2019s flooding,\u00a0but\u00a0they typically wait until a few\u00a0crack\u00a0open before slithering away for good.\u00a0But moving the\u00a0challenge\u2019s\u00a0dates\u00a0also\u00a0placed it in the middle\u00a0of Florida\u2019s rainy season,\u00a0when daily torrential rainstorms and stifling humidity make the 90-plus-degree days and nights practically unbearable. The\u00a0bugs\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0help,\u00a0and neither does the\u00a0Everglades’\u00a0unpredictable terrain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stanberry, however, was undeterred\u00a0last year, kicking off her shoes to hunt barefoot, giving her more maneuverability in the cypress swamps. When\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0on any hunt, her adrenaline still spikes at the sight of the tip of a scaly tail in the bush.\u201cEvery catch really is different,\u201d she says. \u201cYou just have to expect the unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some pythons are easy to collect, while others can coil around the hunter\u2019s arms.\u201cThat\u2019s when you get into some trouble,\u201d she admits. Typically, when catching pythons, she does what most hunters do:\u00a0grabs the back of their heads and mid-body. When extra-large serpents\u00a0require\u00a0more power, her husband,\u00a0Rhett,\u00a0steps in to help.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just grab them with my hands and put them in the pillowcase and\u00a0\u2026 expect to be really smelly by the end of the night,\u201d Stanberry says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Python hunting is\u00a0indeed\u00a0a stinky business. The snakes have a nonvenomous\u00a0bite, and\u00a0they\u00a0defecate on\u00a0predators\u00a0and\u00a0musk\u00a0them\u00a0with an aroma\u00a0that, according to Stanberry, resembles \u201cdead\u00a0fish.\u201d\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a defense\u00a0mechanism that discharges a\u00a0foul-smellingsubstance from their cloaca that either startles or disgusts a predator long enough that the python can slither away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before 2021, the challenge was typically held in the winter, but the FWC decided to move it to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[130328,12688,3879,28,30,29,130329,4615,130327,15750,130326],"class_list":["post-312957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-annual-python-challenge","tag-burmese-pythons","tag-everglades","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-florida-python-hunt","tag-invasive-species","tag-python-challenge","tag-snakes","tag-taylor-stanberry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}