Florida Pythons Targeted During State-Sponsored ‘Python Challenge’

Florida wildlife officials announced on Saturday that this year's "Python Challenge" ended with the capture of 68 pythons, some of which measured as long as 14 feet. More than 1,600 people signed up for the "Python challenge," and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said the hunt may have prevented thousands more pythons from being born in the Everglades. Female pythons can lay as many as 100 eggs at a time.

"It's breeding time and females attract males and we have three eager young lads sitting out there with radio transmitters on them who can lead us to the breeding female and we can catch her," Frank Mazzotti, wildlife professor and organizer of the competition, told ABC News.

The purpose of the "Python Challenge" is to help reduce the number of pythons living in the Florida Everglades. Pythons are an invasive, non-native species and their numbers have been growing steadily the last several years. No one is quite sure how many of the non-native species live in the Everglades but estimates have ranged up to 100,000 animals.

"In our view that number -- the number that were harvested, taken out of the ecosystem -- was an unprecedented number of samples that will help us answer questions about pythons and make us more effective at tackling this problem, removing them from the system," Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told NY Daily News.

The harvested snakes will be taken to the University of Florida where researchers will perform necropsies to learn more about the reptiles, which have no natural predator in the Everglades.

Wiley said this won't be the last time the public hears of the "Python Challenge."

"I definitely anticipate we'll do something of this nature again," he said.