{"id":350019,"date":"2026-07-23T16:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:09:12","slug":"florida-hunters-chase-25000-bounty-as-invasive-pythons-ravage-everglades-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/350019\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida hunters chase $25,000 bounty as invasive pythons ravage Everglades wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

With prize money up for grabs in July, hunters fanned out through the Everglades for Florida’s annual Python Challenge<\/a>, an effort aimed at removing invasive Burmese pythons before they cause even more damage to native wildlife in one of the nation’s most important wetlands.<\/p>\n

What’s happening?<\/p>\n

The 10-day event carried $25,000 in total prizes, including $10,000 for the participant who killed the most pythons. It is meant to curb the damage these invasive snakes are causing throughout the Everglades food web.<\/p>\n

While the competition has concluded, the winners have not yet been announced. Last year, it wasn’t until August 13 that the winners were confirmed, per<\/a> Naples Daily News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why does it matter?<\/p>\n

Professional python hunter Amy Siewe explained the importance of removing these threatening invasive snakes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Every python we remove matters,” she said on Facebook<\/a>. “Every single one means fewer predators hunting our native wildlife and one less python growing into an apex predator.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burmese pythons eat many kinds of animals, and necropsies have turned up mammals, birds, reptiles, and even protected species in their stomachs.<\/p>\n

The prey list includes animals such as wood storks, alligators, and deer. Because a single large python can consume prey equal to 100%<\/a> of its body mass, per Naples Daily News, the species can quickly reshape an ecosystem that native animals did not evolve to defend against.<\/p>\n

That damage extends beyond wildlife. When a major wetland such as the Everglades loses biodiversity, it undermines years of restoration work and threatens a natural system that supports nearby communities, recreation, and regional environmental health.<\/p>\n

Female pythons can produce hundreds of eggs, too, and as the snakes get larger, so does the size of the prey they can kill.<\/p>\n

Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With prize money up for grabs in July, hunters fanned out through the Everglades for Florida’s annual Python…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12688,3879,28,30,29,51025,108823,12689,13074],"class_list":["post-350019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-burmese-pythons","tag-everglades","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-naples-daily-news","tag-native-wildlife","tag-pythons","tag-state-of-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350019","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=350019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}