Hunters Vie for $25,000 in Prizes to Protect Florida's Ecosystem The 2025 Florida Python Challenge™ officially began today, with hundreds of registered participants already scouring the Everglades in a crucial effort to remove invasive Burmese pythons.

With $25,000 of prizes in play including a $10,000 grand prize, the effort targets invasive Burmese pythons, seeking to protect traditional Floridian wildlife from the slithering scourges introduced to the state as pets in the 1980s only to develop a foothold in South Florida after Hurricane Andrew’s historic destruction in 1992.

Florida wants you to kill as many of the invasive Burmese pythons as you can during the 10-days contest in July. But you can't shoot them.