By the Numbers: Feeling the squeeze

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Out-of-control python population spurs Florida’s annual snake hunting challenge

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

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$25,000

The sum total of cash prizes awarded at the Florida Python Challenge that concluded Aug. 18. Between 2020 and 2023, hunters tracked down and culled 743 invasive Burmese pythons during the annual 10-day, state-sponsored event. The large reptiles, which arrived in South Florida through both accidental and intentional release, have no natural predators there and have wrought havoc on native wildlife.

21,000

The number of Burmese pythons removed from Florida since 2000, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Up to 300,000 pythons still live in the Everglades.

99.3%

The decline in the population of raccoons in Everglades National Park between 1997 and 2012. Researchers also blame pythons for the near erasure of opossums and bobcats from the park.

100

The upper limit of eggs a female python can lay at one time, key to the species’ ability to rapidly increase its population.

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