Latest news with #ConservancyofSouthwestFlorida
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Alligator Alcatraz detention center in Florida: How many pythons are in the Everglades?
Alligator Alcatraz is Florida's recently opened migrant detention center in the Everglades. The center was the brainchild of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who announced the site in a video on X. In the video, Uthmeier said, "You don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons." The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world. Adult pythons average between 6 and 9 feet, though the longest ever caught in Florida was 19 feet. The heaviest was over 200 pounds. Burmese pythons are an invasive species in Florida, with a population spread across more than 1,000 square miles of South Florida, including Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. According to FWC, Burmese pythons can consume meals equivalent to 100% their body mass. During a study, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida took part in, researchers realized that Burmese python can eat prey larger than previously thought when they observed a python ingesting a 77-pound white-tailed deer, which was 66.9 percent of the snake's mass. Burmese pythons can pose a threat to human safety. Attacks on humans are improbable but possible in any locality where the animals are present and people are also present. Here's what to know about the biggest Burmese pythons caught in Florida and how many there are in the Everglades: Alligator Alcatraz is a temporary migrant detention center near the Florida Everglades. The controversial center reportedly has a capacity of up to 3,000 detainees, housed in FEMA tents and trailers. Alligator Alcatraz was erected at the Miami-Dade Collier Training and Transition Airport, a 39-square-mile airport facility with a 10,500-foot runway in Ochopee, an unincorporated community in Collier County, Florida. The facility is in the Big Cypress National Preserve, which borders Everglades National Park. Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes in the world, with adult animals averaging between 10 and 16 feet long, according to the University of Florida. A group of python hunters caught the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in the Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County. The massive snake was 19 feet long. The heaviest Burmese python ever recorded was caught by Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists in the Florida Everglades in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, human fatalities from non-venomous snakes are rare, with an average of one or two per year worldwide. There have been no human deaths from wild-living Burmese pythons in Florida. And while python attacks on humans are unlikely, they're not impossible. Per USGS, "In suburban areas and parks in Florida that contain ponds, canals or other bodies of water where large snakes could feel at home, the situation is likely similar to that experienced with alligators: attacks are improbable but possible in any locality where the animals are present and people are also present. The simplest and most sure-fire way to reduce the risk of human fatalities is to avoid interacting with a large constrictor." It's hard to get an exact count, given the Burmese python's ability to live in various South Florida environments and the difficulty accessing some areas. "Burmese pythons are hard to find due to their cryptic coloration and secretive behaviors, and their low detection probability is a major challenge to effective python control and research," according to Florida Fish and Wildlife. However, conservative estimates by the USGS put the Burmese python population in the Florida Everglades region in the tens of thousands. The 2025 Florida Python Challenge — a 10-day event to remove invasive Burmese pythons — starts at 12:01 a.m. July 11 and ends at 5 p.m. July 20. Participants can win money prizes in several categories, including a $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize. The top prize of $10,000 goes to the person who catches the most pythons. Those with the most catches in the Novice, Professional and Military categories win $2,500, while runners-up in each group receive $1,500, and $1,000 is awarded for the longest pythons caught. Burmese pythons captured in Florida must be humanely killed. While they are not protected in Florida, anti-cruelty law still applies. You can report a python sighting to the FWC. If you think you see a Burmese python, take a photo, note your location and report your sighting by calling the Exotic Species Hotline at 888-Ive-Got1 (888-483-4681), using the free IveGot1 mobile app or online at This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Alligator Alcatraz in the Everglades: What's the python population?
USA Today
09-07-2025
- General
- USA Today
Why hunters are chasing invasive snakes in Florida's 10-day python challenge
The annual Florida Python Challenge starts July 11 at 12:01 a.m. ET and ends at 5 p.m. July 20. Participants can win more than $25,000 in prizes as they remove invasive Burmese pythons from South Florida. Burmese pythons, which are not native to Florida, harm native wildlife. The invasive species is primarily found in and around the Everglades ecosystem in South Florida, where they prey on birds, mammals and other reptiles. The Florida Python Challenge was created by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to help protect the Everglades and its native animals by removing the invasive reptiles. Contestants have 10 days to kill as many Burmese pythons as possible. How many pythons are removed each year in the Python Challenge? Last year, participants in the Florida Python Challenge removed 195 invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades. That brought the total number of nonnative constrictors removed in all Florida Python Challenge competitions to 1,112. In 2024, more than 850 people from 33 states and Canada registered for the competition. Where will the python challenge take place? The Florida Python Challenge will take place on eight commission-managed lands in South Florida. This year the Everglades National Park is participating in the Florida Python Challenge. 'We're excited to join our partners in the State of Florida for this year's Florida Python Challenge,' said Pedro Ramos, superintendent of Everglades National Park, who oversees the South Florida National Parks and Preserve. 'For years, we've worked alongside the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the South Florida Water Management District and others to manage pythons and other invasive species while educating the public about their impact on the Everglades. This event marks another milestone in that collaboration as we include Everglades National Park in the Challenge.' Where do Burmese pythons live? Originally from Southeast Asia, the Burmese python was introduced to southern Florida either through accidental escape or intentional release of captive animals. In 1979, the first observation of a Burmese python in the wild in South Florida was recorded in Everglades National Park. The heaviest python ever caught in Florida was an 18-foot, 215-pound snake. It was caught by a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples in 2021. Size of the Burmese python The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission keeps track of length and weight of Burmese pythons after sightings are reported. The longest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, in July 2023, measured more than 19 feet. What are the rules of the Florida Python Challenge? ◾ Contestants must carry a printed or digital copy of their Florida Python Challenge registration notification email while hunting. ◾ Contestants must complete required online training and receive a unique completion code. ◾ Only Burmese pythons removed from competition locations are valid entries. ◾ The use of firearms is prohibited. ◾ The use of dogs or other animals to search, capture or kill is prohibited. ◾ Air guns and captive bolts are allowed. ◾ Python carcasses must be kept chilled or frozen, then turned in to the nearest Florida Python Challenge check station within 24 hours of capture. What should you do if you see a Burmese python? Summer is the time of year when you are most likely to see a Burmese python. In the summer months, Burmese pythons may remain sedentary when the sun is up, but at night they may become more active and are more easily spotted crossing levees or roadways. If you spot a Burmese python, take a photo, mark your location and call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-483-4681. You can humanely kill Burmese pythons on private land at any time with a landowner's permission. You don't need a permit to kill the invasive species. Live transport of pythons is not allowed. There are multiple ways to humanely euthanize a python, but here are the basic guidelines from the fish and wildlife commission: ◾ Step 1: Immediate loss of consciousness ◾ Use a captive bolt, firearm or air gun to shoot directly to the brain. ◾ Step 2: Destroy the brain ◾ Make sure the python is unconscious. ◾ Insert a small rod, like a screwdriver, spike or pick, into the cranial cavity and twist it to ensure the entire brain is destroyed. CONTRIBUTING Kendall Little, Naples Daily News SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Tons of fun. Naples python program passes 42,000 pounds of Burmese python caught
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has one of the world's premiere Burmese python research, detection and removal programs, and this past season the python team there literally caught tons of snakes. More than 6,300 pounds of Burmese python were tracked and removed by the team, which has removed more than 40,000 pounds of invasive snake across a 200-square-mile area since 2013. Based in Naples, the program includes biologists, interns and volunteers who use radio telemetry to track male "scout" snakes, which basically go out and find breeding-sized females. Since its inception, workers there have removed more than 11,500 feet of Burmese python, which is about 2 miles. The average snake caught has measured 12.6 feet in length, and the program has removed 277 breeding females. The Burmese python has a diet of more than 80 species, according to the Conservancy. The snakes are removed and handled in a humane fashion, and the biologists later dissect many of the specimens to see what exactly is in their digestive tracts. They also want to know about any egg-bearing females. Conservancy biologist Ian Bartoszek gave a presentation May 15 at the Naples Zoo to a crowd of about 50 snake and conservation enthusiasts. The following captures much of his discussion on pythons and what the audience heard Bartoszek say during is presentation: We've been in the field for well over a decade tracking this animal and uh, it's an intense animal, an impressive creature. There is a good chance we have more Burmese pythons in south Florida than they may have remaining in southeast Asia. That's an important point to keep in mind when you see like skin trade and things like that talked about because we could be putting undue pressure on them in the future. Their superpower is they get big quick. Over 100,000 Burmese pythons were brought in from the pet trade since the '70s, and it was a perfect storm of conditions, whether they were released, escaped pets or hurricanes came through and knocked out breeding facilities, um, you can circle all the above as to how the python became established. No two patterns are alike. I have a lot of respect for this creature, and as a biologist I don't really like having to do that. We can't put these in the zoos, there's no room and their genetics are a bit different than their home in southeast Asia, and they have different parasites and pathogens. We go where the pythons go. We've had a tracking program since 2013, and we've tracked over 120 adults and 92 hatchlings. We removed over 1,500 pythons, big pythons, weighing over 42,000 pounds. 21 tons of snake have come from this area with two biologists and a few interns and volunteers. You can't make this up. It reads out of a science fiction novel. More: Warmer temperatures, cold-tolerant adaptations means Burmese pythons may reach Georgia If you told me 15 years ago that we would be tracking one of the largest snakes on the planet, removing 21 tons, I would think it was crazy. But this is what we're seeing out there. It's intense. So, constrictor snake, semi-aquatic, apex predator, and while I was watching this, the closest analogy I have to what it looked like kind of standing over it, it looked like a whale coming up breaching, a baleen whale in the ocean as to how wide that mouth go. We watched this unfold. We did remove the deer. We weighed the deer, and it was 77 pounds. But we got some science out of this as well. A visiting researcher measured the gape, the maximum circumference of the animal swallowing that. That was 32 inches in circumference. It's just, uh, insane if you think about it. And that's the largest gape recorded on the python to date as well. There's been many firsts on this project ― largest one caught, largest male caught, measured the gape and some other things. Just an impressive beast that we're up against. Don't underestimate the python is one of the take-home messages. They never cease to amaze me, their impact. Impressive species. When we first saw it, we thought, geez that could be a panther. We brought in the state experts, and they found some hair and identified it as a bobcat, so that specific animal had a bobcat and right behind it was an opossum. So, they really don't discriminate. Others have had black-crowned night herons and foxes in the same digestive track, surf and turf. More: Bobcat kills massive Burmese python, returns to feed on its carcass in Florida Everglades Python's digestion is the studied the world over, they have incredible physiology, more than I'm aware of. We talked with National Geographic a few times. They were in the lab two weeks ago and we did a necropsy with them of a large snake, and we were able to show them the remains of white-tailed deer in there and they captured that on film, which I think that will be great for viewers in the future. Why does this matter? White-tailed deer are the primary prey of the Florida panther. You have an endangered subspecies of the Eastern cougar here and insert an invasive predator gobbling up their food source, I'm not sure that's going to help the situation. (We use) VHF radio transmitters. We don't have satellite collars on pythons. We have really adapted to that. The tech isn't there. So, we use this World War II era technology, and, um, it works. It's pretty creepy that, you know, at the end of that beeping is a giant snake usually. But that's what we look for and that's what I enjoy, especially in the breeding season. That could be a pile of giant snakes. It started as a research program to understand where these animals were moving and very quickly, we started to see that the boys were finding the girls in breeding season. What if we tracked more males to find snakes? More: Scout pythons help scientists battle spread of giant snakes as program passes 10th year We're figuring out as we go, but we know our neighborhood and we know how the pythons are behaving outside of town. I believe we're actually doing python management. We're really pushing back on the snakes. They don't care about political boundaries. They don't really want to go into the urban zone if they don't have to, but they will. They'll follow corridors. Nobody has come into our lab yet and showed us a better way to find female pythons off-grid and remove them. The day they do I will hand them the baton, I will wish them well, pour a picture of beer or something and then off to the next thing. This is a lot of heavy lifting. A lot of flight time and field time. We're hacking trails. We're getting the intel. It's like special operations, special forces. We call our male snakes with transmitters scouts. It kind of rolls off the tongue well and those scouts will find us the larger breeding females or get us into close proximity and then we have to search it out. It's not so easy. These animals are not interested in us. They're interested in our native wildlife. So, it's just an amazing creature and if you have a little bit of understanding and realize they're not into us, I've walked in on thousands of python observations, and they've never been interested in me. They just want to get away. More: GoPro video of Florida python slithering through grass provides an exhilarating ride Of course, if you grab them, they're going to tell you about it. They don't want to be grabbed. And they're going to fight back. It's pretty amazing that you can wrangle and apex predator like this, put it in a bag, tie it up and on to the next one. It's crazy. Largest female, largest male and some other things here as well on the project. When I say we removed over 1,400 snakes weighing over 42,000 pounds, that really shows you the volume of the biomass that we're pulling out. We're after the high-value targets until we find a better method to target the rest of them as well. This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples-area python program passes 1,400 snakes since inception in 2013
Hans India
11-06-2025
- Science
- Hans India
Florida removes over 1,000 Burmese pythons in Everglades conservation drive
Florida's war against the invasive Burmese python has reached a new milestone: more than 1,000 snakes have been captured and humanely euthanized since 2013 by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Weighing nearly 20 tons in total, these removals are part of a broader initiative to protect the Everglades from ecological collapse. Originally introduced through the exotic pet trade in the 1970s, Burmese pythons—native to Southeast Asia—have since exploded in population. They now prey on over 85 native species including birds, mammals, and reptiles, threatening biodiversity across South Florida. Record Breeding Season and New Strategies The most recent breeding season, between November and April, saw over 6,300 pounds of python removed from a 200-square-mile area. Some snakes weighed over 215 pounds and measured nearly 18 feet in length. Many females were euthanized before laying eggs—preventing the potential birth of 20,000 more snakes. One innovative method involves tracking 'scout snakes'—radio-tagged males released during mating season. These scouts lead researchers to hidden nests of breeding females, dramatically improving capture efficiency. Signs of Progress, But Challenges Remain While sightings continue to spread northward, even reaching Lake Okeechobee, some encouraging signs suggest python numbers may be stabilizing. Scout snakes are now locating fewer and smaller females, hinting at population stress. In rare instances, native predators like bobcats and the endangered eastern indigo snake have been seen preying on young pythons—a positive sign of nature beginning to fight back. A Collaborative Conservation Mission This massive removal project is a joint effort involving the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, U.S. Geological Survey, University of Florida, National Park Service, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. While total eradication remains unlikely, the shared goal is long-term population control—to give native species a fighting chance in one of Earth's most fragile and extraordinary ecosystems.
Economic Times
10-06-2025
- Science
- Economic Times
Conservancy of Southwest Florida sets record with over 6,300 pounds of Burmese Pythons removed in landmark season
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has removed a record 6,300 pounds of Burmese pythons this season, bringing their total to over 40,000 pounds since 2013. Using radio telemetry and "scout snakes," they target breeding females, preventing an estimated 20,000 eggs from hatching. This effort aims to protect native wildlife from the devastating impact of this invasive apex predator. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has announced a record-breaking season in its ongoing battle against the invasive Burmese python, capturing and removing 6,300 pounds of snakes from a 200-square-mile area stretching from Naples through the Western Everglades. This latest haul pushes the organization's total to over 20 tons—more than 40,000 pounds—of Burmese pythons removed since the program's inception in biologist and Science Project Manager Ian Bartoszek, who leads the Conservancy's python program, highlighted the significance of this milestone: 'Removing more than 40,000 pounds of snake, carried out through some of Florida's unrelenting wildlife habitats, is a heavy-lifting assignment. But, through years of dedicated research, we've developed science-based methods to track this apex predator more effectively and mitigate its damage to our native wildlife population .'The Conservancy's innovative approach used radio telemetry and tagged male 'scout snakes' to locate reproductive females, particularly during the November-to-April breeding season. This targeted strategy has prevented an estimated 20,000 python eggs from hatching since 2013, a critical step in curbing the species' explosive population pythons, which can reach lengths over 18 feet and weights exceeding 200 pounds, have devastated native wildlife in South Florida, preying on more than 85 species including deer, bobcats, rabbits, and birds. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) classifies the python as a prohibited species, noting its established range from just south of Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and Collier Moher, President and CEO of the Conservancy, emphasized the broader impact: 'The python team's work of reducing the local population of the invasive snake allows our native wildlife safer conditions to recover.' The Conservancy also collaborates with organizations like the USGS, University of Florida , and South Florida Water Management District, and relies on private philanthropy and grants for the annual Florida Python Challenge approaching (July 11–20), the state continues to encourage public participation in python removal efforts, offering year-round opportunities to help protect Florida's unique ecosystem.
