Burmese pythons spread beyond the Everglades as Florida's Python Challenge begins, offering $25,000 in prizes.

Python tacos? Python pizza? 'Chicken of the Glades?' Florida considered making invasive snakes a food source. Then science stepped in.

Burmese pythons are recognizable by more than their size. Hunters should be on the lookout for a telltale, arrow-shaped marking on the snake’s head, along with giraffe-like spots across its body and dark spots around its eyes. During the summer months, they’re most likely to be found sunning on levee banks or near trees.

Still, scientists no longer consider complete eradication realistic.

Hunters working across the Florida Everglades removed a record four tons of invasive Burmese pythons in a single coordinated effort, a haul that reflects both the staggering scale of the infestation and the expanding reach of state and federal removal programs.

Invasive reptiles may be quietly altering how plants regenerate, moving seeds across the Everglades and complicating efforts to restore balance.

Brandon Welty, a python researcher with Croc Docs, holds up an antenna and receiver to track where a male python during breeding season on March 11, 2026 in the interior of the northern Everglades. Ashley Miznazi amiznazi@miamiherald.com

A Florida man was hailed as a hero for catching an 8-foot-long invasive python, and then fined for it. Where is it legal to kill them?

It's important for new or wanna-be python hunters to understand the basics when it comes to eliminating the invasive creatures.

It's official, the Florida Python Challenge this year has a winner. The $10,000 grand prize went to Ronald Kiger, who removed 20 Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades during the 10-day hunt, which was meant to bring awareness to the threat that these ...

Florida researchers fitted GPS-collared opossums to track Burmese pythons from the inside — and the hidden biology of this tiny marsupial makes it the perfect secret weapon.