With Florida Python Challenge set for summer, a look at largest Burmese pythons ever caught
Dates for the 2025 Florida Python Challenge — a ten-day event to remove invasive Burmese pythons — are set and registration for the event is open.
This year's hunt runs from July 11 to July 20, Florida Fish and Wildlife announced May 15.
Participants can win money prizes in several categories, including a $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize.
First identified in Everglades National Park in 2000, the Burmese python may be the most destructive foreign animal in the park's history.
Burmese pythons have put a stranglehold on Florida's wildlife, contributing to the decline of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, foxes, and marsh and cottontail rabbits, according to a USGS study.
The massive snakes can grow to more than 18 feet and weigh more than 200 pounds.
FWC works with partners and the public to hunt and kill the snakes, including the annual Florida Python Challenge.
Here's what to know about the Florida Python Challenge for 2025 and the biggest pythons caught in Florida:
The 2025 Florida Python Challenge starts at 12:01 a.m. July 11 and ends at 5 p.m. July 20, Florida Fish and Wildlife announced May 15.
$25,000 in prizes are up for grabs for this year's hunt.
The top prize of $10,000 goes to the person who catches the most pythons. Those with the most catches in the Novice, Professional and Military categories win $2,500, while runners-up in each group receive $1,500, and $1,000 is awarded for the longest pythons caught.
Burmese pythons captured in Florida must be humanely killed. While they are not protected in Florida, anti-cruelty law still applies.
Step 1: The method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately. These tools should result in the immediate loss of consciousness:
Captive bolt
Firearms (not allowed in the Florida Python Challenge and otherwise subject to property-specific and local rules) or pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air guns
Step 2: The animal's brain should be destroyed by 'pithing' which prevents it from regaining consciousness.
The invasive snakes are distributed across more than a thousand square miles in the Everglades and southern Florida Burmese pythons have been found across the state and are slithering north. They may even reach Georgia.
A group of python hunters caught the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in the Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County.
The monster snake was 19 feet long.
The previous record was held by python hunters Ryan Ausburn and Kevin Pavlidis who captured a python measuring a whopping 18-feet 9-inches in 2020.
In 2013, Jason Leon captured a then-record 18-foot python in southeastern Miami-Dade County. The massive snake weighed 128 pounds.
Licensed python hunter Mike Kimmel, alone on a spoil island in the Florida Everglades, caught a 17-foot python in 2020.
Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists caught the heaviest Burmese python ever recorded in the Florida Everglades in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.
A 198-pound Burmese python was captured in November 2023 in the Big Cypress Preserve, making it the second-heaviest ever caught in the Sunshine State. The massive snake was 17 feet, 2 inches long.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Florida Python Challenge 2025 dates set. See biggest ever captured
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