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USA Today
5 days ago
- Sport
- USA Today
Florida's new python hunting queen makes history and catches 60 snakes
A Florida woman caught 60 snakes in the state's annual 10-day challenge to eliminate the invasive Burmese python species wreaking havoc with the Everglades ecosystem. More than 900 people participated in the 2025 Python Challenge, a 10-day hunt in the steamy South Florida heat that this year made history on two fronts with the first woman to win the grand prize and the most total snakes caught since the competition began in 2013. Taylor Stanberry, a 29-year-old Naples resident, was introduced as the 2025 Florida Python Challenge winner on Aug. 13. At 4-feet, 11-inches tall, Stanberry is taking home the grand prize of $10,000 for catching 60 snakes. She is the first woman to win the grand prize in Florida's Python Challenge. Overall, the catches were also monumental this year with 294 pythons captured – the most in the contest's history. The contest brings together amateur and professional snake-catchers to hunt within certain zones of south Florida for the pythons, which threaten the state's ecology and are found in the Everglades, preying on birds, mammals and other reptiles. Challengers must capture and humanely kill the pythons and not harm any native species. Stanberry eliminated 33 female pythons and 27 males. The longest snake she caught was just over 9 feet and weighed about 16 pounds. "Every invasive python removed is a win," said Sarah Funk, nonnative fish and wildlife program coordinator with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission. At least one participant noted that the July dates for the hunt lined up with new hatchlings swarming the southern wetlands, which provided plenty of opportunities for hunters. Donna Kalil, a contract hunter for the South Florida Water Management District, nabbed 56 snakes during the Python Challenge between July 11 and July 20. She brought in 19 during the 2024 contest when the event was held Aug. 9 through Aug. 18. The grand prize winner last year nabbed 20 snakes. "It's all because of the timing," said Kalil, who won $2,500 this year for catching the most snakes in the professional category of the challenge. "There were a lot of little baby snakes just getting out of the nest. Some had already had a meal. They come out and are ready to eat." Burmese python breed in the late winter to early spring with females laying clutches of eggs in March or April. The incubation period lasts between 60 to 90 days. Hatchlings can be up to two feet long, which is a lot of what Kalil said she caught. Her longest snake measured 5 feet, 5 inches. Last year she brought in a 12-footer. "All I got was little guys," she said. Stanberry, of Naples, is a contract hunter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. She said she has been hunting pythons for 10 years but this was the first year she entered the challenge. Her Facebook profile says she is a digital creator with an exotic animal sanctuary. "There are so many amazing female python hunters out there so I had some tough competition," Stanberry said after leaving the Aug. 13 FWC Commission meeting where the results were announced. Stanberry said most of her catches were babies, but she did nab one that she said was between 9.5 and 10 feet long. While this year's participation is higher than 2024, the number of hunters has fluctuated over the years from a high of nearly 1,600 in 2013 to just 600 during the early pandemic year of 2021. Participants hunted in designated areas that stretch from western Palm Beach County to the Tamiami Trail in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area. Other management areas included in the Python Challenge are Holey Land, Rotenberger and Southern Glades. This was also the first year that Everglades National Park allowed people to hunt in the park during the challenge. What are the prizes for the Florida Python Challenge? The $10,000 grand prize is awarded to the participant who removes the most snakes as part of the competition. There are also three competition categories including professional, novice and military. Each category includes a $2,500 price for most pythons caught, $1,500 for the second-highest number of pythons caught and $1,000 for the longest python. Participants may only win one prize, so if someone wins two, the person will be awarded the prize of the highest value and the next qualifying hunter will win the remaining prize. Why hunt Burmese pythons? Florida earnestly began hunting pythons in about 2012. It was the first year of the Python Challenge and the same year a study in Everglades National Park suggested pythons were responsible for a decline of 85% to 100% of the population of medium-sized furry animals, such as raccoons and rabbits. The Burmese python invasion started with releases – intentional or not – that allowed them to gain a foothold in the park by the mid-1980s, according to the 2021 Florida Python Control plan. By 2000, multiple generations of pythons were living in the park, which is noted in a more than 100-page 2023 report that summarized decades of python research. How many pythons have been caught? More than 15,800 snakes have been removed by hunters from the South Florida Water Management District and FWC since 2019. The hunters were called the "most effective management strategy in the history of the issue" by district invasive animal biologist Mike Kirkland. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Florida Python Challenge winner nabbed 60 snakes and she's just 4'11"
More than 900 people participated in the 2025 Python Challenge, a 10-day hunt in the steamy South Florida heat aimed at raising awareness of the destruction caused by the invasive reptile to the fragile Florida Everglades. The winners of the contest were announced Aug. 13, including Taylor Stanberry, who at 4-feet, 11-inches tall is taking home the grand prize of $10,000 for catching 60 snakes. "Every invasive python removed is a win," said Sarah Funk, nonnative fish and wildlife program coordinator with the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission. Overall, the catches were monumental this year with 294 pythons captured — the most in the contest's history. At least one participant noted that the July dates for the hunt lined up with new hatchlings swarming the southern wetlands providing plenty of opportunities for hunters. Donna Kalil, a contract hunter for the South Florida Water Management District, nabbed 56 snakes during the Python Challenge between July 11 and July 20. She brought in 19 during the 2024 contest when the event was held Aug. 9 through Aug. 18. The grand prize winner last year nabbed 20 snakes. "It's all because of the timing," Kalil said. "There were a lot of little baby snakes just getting out of the nest. Some had already had a meal. They come out and are ready to eat." Burmese python breed in the late winter to early spring with females laying clutches of eggs in March or April. The incubation period lasts between 60 to 90 days. Hatchlings can be up to two feet long, which is a lot of what Kalil said she caught. Her longest snake measured 5 feet, 5 inches. Last year she brought in a 12-footer. "All I got was little guys," she said. Other winners will be announced later today, Aug. 13. A total of 934 hunters participated in this year's challenge. More: UF researchers deploy robotic rabbits across South Florida to fight Burmese python explosion While this year's participation is higher than 2024, the number of hunters has fluctuated over the years from a high of nearly 1,600 in 2013 to just 600 during the pandemic year of 2021. Participants hunted in designated areas that stretch from western Palm Beach County to the Tamiami Trail in the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area. Other management areas included in the Python Challenge are Holey Land, Rotenberger and Southern Glades. This was also the first year that Everglades National Park allowed people to hunt in the park during the challenge. What are the prizes for the Florida Python Challenge? The $10,000 grand prize is awarded to the participant who removes the most snakes as part of the competition. There are also three competition categories including professional, novice and military. Each category includes a $2,500 price for most pythons caught, $1,500 for the second-highest number of pythons caught and $1,000 for the longest python. Participants may only win one prize, so if someone wins two, the person will be awarded the prize of the highest value and the next qualifying hunter will win the remaining prize. More: Python 'hot spot' identified in Palm Beach County by University of Florida study Why hunt Burmese pythons? Florida earnestly began hunting pythons in about 2012. It was the first year of the Python Challenge and the same year a study in Everglades National Park suggested pythons were responsible for a decline of 85% to 100% of the population of medium-sized furry animals, such as raccoons and rabbits. The Burmese python invasion started with releases — intentional or not — that allowed them to gain a foothold in the park by the mid-1980s, according to the 2021 Florida Python Control plan. By 2000, multiple generations of pythons were living in the park, which is noted in a more than 100-page 2023 report that summarized decades of python research. How many pythons have been caught? More than 15,800 snakes have been removed by hunters from the South Florida Water Management District and FWC since 2019. The hunters were called the "most effective management strategy in the history of the issue" by district invasive animal biologist Mike Kirkland. Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate, weather, and the environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@ Help support our local journalism, subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 2025 Florida Python Challenge winners announced by FWC Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
05-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Burmese pythons are adapting, evolving and slithering around these parts of Florida
In Palm Beach County, 69 Burmese pythons have been captured since 2006, according to the Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System, or EDDMapS. In addition, four have been found dead, and 24 sightings have been reported. Countless more of the invasive snakes likely have lurked undetected or unreported. Just to the north of Palm Beach County, on the Treasure Coast, there have been at least 25 documented sightings of Burmese pythons since 2004.. Where did the Burmese pythons come from? The conventional wisdom is they were pets that escaped or were released. But there's mounting evidence that Everglades pythons have the ability to migrate north and west from South Florida because they're crossbreeding, evolving and adapting to other areas of Florida and the U.S. The question is: Have they crossed the boundaries of their established breeding range, which extends from Lake Okeechobee south to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County? The Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey would not speculate, and several other biologists, scientists and snake wranglers told TCPalm they just don't know. However, a 2008 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Invasions says pythons are 'now well established in southern Florida and spreading northward.' 'They are good at finding ways of sheltering,' said Ken Gioeli, a Natural Resources and Environment agent at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences in Fort Pierce. 'Unfortunately, they are adapting.' Pythons have been established in the Everglades since the 1980s, but studies and sightings show the cold-blooded snakes have adapted to cooler temperatures and different habitats. The USGS has confirmed their presence north of the Everglades through DNA identification of their saliva, excrement, shed skin and sloughed scales, said research geneticist Margaret Hunter. Those areas are north of Lake Okeechobee in the Kissimmee River area from Orlando to Okeechobee and southwest of Lake Okeechobee in the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach County, Hunter said. One reason they've adapted to higher ground is they've been crossbred with Indian rock pythons that prefer that habitat — likely before they were introduced into the Everglades, according to the USGS. Genetic evidence shows at least 13 out of 400 pythons studied were crossbred. For evidence of how they've adapted to the cold, look no further than a 2010 Arctic blast that blew unusually and prolonged cold weather into South Florida from January to March. Scientists found the pythons that survived have a different gene than the ones that died, Hunter said. 'A substantial portion of the mainland U.S. is potentially vulnerable to this ostensibly tropical invader,' says the 2008 study in Biological Invasions. Climate change could expand their range even more by 2100 to include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Colorado and parts of Washington state. Coastal and Southern states with python-conducive climates similar to the snakes' native range in Asia — from India to China to Pakistan — include all of Florida and most of California as well as the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana Oklahoma and Texas. "They are going to continue to evolve and adapt," Hunter said. For now, the FWC staff evaluates reports of pythons outside their established breeding range and 'release information regarding new locations of establishment and range changes.' The SFWMD's Python Elimination Program and the FWC's Florida Python Challenge and Python Action Team Removing Invasive Constrictors are among the statewide efforts to remove pythons from the environment, which is essential because they alter food webs. Pythons have killed 85-100% of the Everglades' foxes, bobcats, rabbits, raccoons, possums and white-tailed deer — species that live on the Treasure Coast too. The FWC and SFWMD contract with 100 hunters who track and remove pythons from the Everglades year-round, and the Python Challenge that FWC launched in 2013 became an annual 10-day hunting competition in 2020. Through all the state's efforts, over 23,000 pythons have been removed since 2000, including 917 from the hunt alone, according to FWC. Yet trappers have caught less than 1% of Florida's python population, Hunter said, which is estimated to be in the tens of thousands and growing. State law allows people to kill an unlimited number of pythons using humane and legal methods on 32 FWC-managed lands year-round, and on private land with the owner's permission. 'Every python removed from the Florida landscape is one less invasive snake impacting our native wildlife and ecosystems,' FWC spokesperson Lisa Thompson said. "FWC staff encourages residents to report sightings." That's not happening enough, Gioeli said. 'Every once in a while, there will be a news report of a police officer or animal control officer capturing one, but those reports never make it to the reporting sites,' he said. 'I've tried to bridge that gap to get them to report it. I will work to let people know that the reporting system is out there. I think a lot of people are not aware that there is a reporting system.' Call 911 or Animal Control in your city or county for an immediate threat, then report the exact location to the FWC's Invasive Species Hotline at 888-Ive-Got1 (483-4681). Sending a photo is important because Burmese pythons can be easily confused with ball pythons. 'There is always going to be a constant need for outreach and education' about reporting pythons, Gioeli said, 'because there are so many new people coming to the area.' Tim O'Hara is TCPalm's environment reporter. Contact him at This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Map: Florida Burmese pythons habitats grow beyond Everglades
