DAVIE, Fla. – With more than 1,000 registered hunters from 29 states, the annual Python Challenge ended with 160 less giant constrictors at the Everglades National Park.
Burmese pythons, which blend in and hide in the swampy dense vegetation, are an invasive species in Florida, where scientists say they have squeezed out populations of native mammals. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission set up the hunting challenge to deal with the python problem.
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For the last three years, python hunters have been competing for cash prizes. FWC Commissioner Ron Bergeron said weather conditions and an expansion of the hunting area contributed to this year's success.
"Each python that is removed makes a difference for our native wildlife," Bergeron said during an award ceremony at the Long Key Natural Area and Nature Center in Davie.
The Python Challenge participants were required to train on how to kill the South Asian nonvenomous constrictors that continue to eat everything from white-tailed deer to foxes and bobcats. The hunters were allowed to decapitate them or either put a bolt or a bullet through their heads.
Bill Booth's team -- Duane Clark, Dustry Crum and Craig Nicks -- caught 33 of the 160 pythons. They won the first-place $5,000 prize.
The second-place $1,500 winner was Paul Shannon's team -- Brian Barrows, Jake Carner and Chris Shannon. They caught 9 pythons.
Booth also won the $3,000 prize for the longest snake -- a 15-foot long python. Shannon caught a 14-foot, 9-inch snake and won $1,000.
Daniel Moniz, who caught 13 pythons, won a $3,500 prize for being the hunter who caught the most snakes. Moniz also won $1,000 for catching a 13-foot, 8.7-inch-long python.
Steve Daskam took $750 for catching 8 pythons. And Jack Merwin got $750 for caching a 13-foot, 7.7-inch-long python.