DAVIE, Fla. — The Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) has announced the winners of the 10th annual Florida Python Challenge.
Over the course of the ten-day period, 209 invasive Burmese pythons were removed from the Everglades, by nearly 1,000 hunters from around the globe.
“It’s exciting. 10 years in the making. A lot of work, blood sweat and tears put into it. We’re riding high for sure,” said Paul Hobbs, who won the grand prize and $10,000 check alongside his father and young son.
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Hobbs and his family captured and dispatched 20 Burmese pythons during this year’s challenge. The group from Tennessee has traveled to Southwest Florida for 9 of the 10 challenges that have occurred thus far.
“It definitely feels small because we know how many eggs they lay, reality says it’s a very small amount… but hey it’s better than none,” said Hobbs.
Burmese pythons are apex predators and can grow up to 20 feet long, according to FWC. The snakes have decimated some mammal populations by as much as 90%.
“The snakes are insanely prolific, and they eat nearly everything. They’ve eaten alligators, deer, anything smaller. Birds mammals, rats, mice, they’re just decimating the Everglades. It’s what people want to come here to experience,” added Hobbs.
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Experts disagree on the exact number of Burmese pythons in the Everglades, but a general consensus is that they number in the hundreds of thousands.
“It definitely feels small because we know how many eggs they lay, reality says it’s a very small amount … but hey it’s better than none,” concluded Hobbs.
The 2023 Florida Python Challenge was sponsored by INVERSA Leathers, a Tampa-based fashion company that specializes in turning invasive species skin into leather and then transforming the apex predators into high-quality luxury items.
“This is such an important event. It’s not just the snakes that are removed. Or the native wildlife that live because they are removed. This has become a rallying cry for conservation across Florida,” said Aarav Chavda, the co-founder of the company.
“We’ve started to see more in the last year especially, more and more groups and governments outside of just Florida starting to catch on to know what Florida has known for a long time… that invasive species are a huge problem and there needs to be something down about it,” added Roland Salantino, another co-founder of INVERSA.
The second-place finish this year was a haul of 14 Burmese pythons, including one 14-footer. The prize for runner-up was $7,500.
“I’ve been catching snakes my whole life. We started coming down for the challenge about five years ago… hit it hard ever since,” said Ronald Kiger, this year’s 2nd place finisher.
“Obviously it’s a huge problem. They’re taking all the native wildlife. So that’s what we’re here for. Trying to remedy that situation. We’ll never catch ‘em all but we are knocking numbers down, doing what we can,” added Kiger.
FWC encourages all to remove the invasive snakes from our area, regardless of whether or not it is during the Python Challenge. They estimate that since the challenge has begun, about 20,000 of the snakes have been removed from the Florida Everglades.
You can see a full list of this year’s winners below:
Top Winners:
Novice: longest python captured (10 ft., 9 inches) – Amy Siewe
Professional: longest python captured (8 ft., 4 inches) – Tom Rahill
Military: longest python captured (7 ft., 10 inches) – Jeff Lince
Novice: most pythons removed (7) – Bob Blank
Professional: most pythons removed (13) – Quentin Archie
Military: most pythons removed (7) – Justin Morgan
Grand Prize Runner-Up (removed 14 pythons) – Ronald Kiger
Overall Ultimate Grand Prize (removed 20 pythons) – Paul Hobbs