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The winner of Florida's 2024 python challenge captured 20 of the invasive snakes

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Steve, you are a well-traveled person.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

I guess.

MARTIN: So did you know about the Florida Python Challenge?

INSKEEP: No, this is a challenge of pythons, I assume, like a big python race.

MARTIN: No, it is not.

INSKEEP: OK.

MARTIN: It is held every year in the Florida Everglades. Members of the public are invited to hunt...

INSKEEP: Ah.

MARTIN: ...And then humanely kill Burmese pythons.

INSKEEP: OK, doesn't sound good. Go on.

MARTIN: Well, not for the pythons. Donna Kalil was one of more than 800 people who participated this year.

DONNA KALIL: I wound up catching 19 pythons. That won me the first prize in the professional category.

MARTIN: She was one snake behind the grand prize winner, who bagged 20 snakes out of the 200 that were captured.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) The professional category...

MARTIN: Professional category.

INSKEEP: So there's an amateur category, too. Go on.

MARTIN: Well, clearly - probably a youth category, too. I don't know about that. But Kalil says the scariest moment of her hunt came when she encountered a 12-foot python in a swamp.

KALIL: I was able to get behind it and straddle it. And as soon as it noticed that I was there, I grabbed it behind the head and then started wrestling. And as I started wrestling, it started coming out of the swamp because I really only saw about 3 or 4 feet of it. And as it started coming out of the swamp, I saw, you know, how big it was.

INSKEEP: OK, why do people do this?

MARTIN: Well, it turns out that Burmese pythons are an invasive species. Florida wildlife officials say they disrupt the local ecosystem.

INSKEEP: OK, so thanks to this year's competition, that's 200 snakes down. And how many to go?

MARTIN: Think a couple hundred thousand more...

INSKEEP: What?

MARTIN: ...Is what I hear. Yes.

KALIL: If you want to come out and help remove them, we have programs that you can do that with. And if you go out on your own, please go out with a friend, be careful and stay safe.

INSKEEP: You know, I'm willing to try just about anything, but I ain't going out there on my own.

MARTIN: Yeah, no, they don't need to tell me twice either.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

MARTIN: But if you do, Steve, if you just happen to change your mind, resist the urge to take one home. And I really mean this since we live near each other.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

MARTIN: Transporting live pythons is illegal in the state of Florida.

INSKEEP: And if it's not illegal elsewhere, it ought to be.

MARTIN: And don't eat them. Don't eat them.

INSKEEP: OK.

MARTIN: It's legal in Florida to eat a Burmese python. You shouldn't 'cause they might contain mercury.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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