The snakes were a little more elusive this year, but 280 invasive Burmese pythons were removed during the annual Florida Python Challenge.
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The number was slightly below the 294 captured in 2025.
The 10-day event, part of an ongoing Everglades conservation effort, drew 907 participants from 30 states as well as Canada and Vietnam. The longest python captured measured nearly 17 feet.
“The Florida Python Challenge shows what is possible when we all come together around a shared conservation goal,” Nick Wiley, executive director of the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, wrote in a news release announcing the results.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which operates the annual challenge, announced Wednesday that the Grand Prize of $10,000 went to Tom Rahill, who removed 96 pythons, all from Everglades National Park.
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Now in its 13th year, the challenge was also hosted alongside the South Florida Water Management District, with support from the National Park Service and the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Burmese pythons are known to prey on native birds, mammals and reptiles, primarily in the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida.
Since 2000, nearly 28,000 wild Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida, the FWC reported.
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