I just took the test to enter this year's Florida Python Challenge. Check out my score...

When the going gets weird, Florida hunts snakes

By J.C. Bruce

Tropic Press

Plans were announced today for the annual Florida Python Challenge, a competition in which hundreds of hunters will venture into the state’s wilderness areas, intent on winning the top prize for the most snakes “humanely” rendered unalive.

That prize is $10,000, which explains why last year’s event drew more than 900 eager contestants.

II thought I would see if I could sign up.

Turns out, anybody can but, first, you have to endure an online tutorial and pass a test to quality. There’s also a small registration fee.

Now, I know full well this is just a publicity stunt that doesn’t make a meaningful dent in the state’s python population.

Last year’s hunt, for instance, resulted in the extermination of 294 pythons out of an estimated population of somewhere between “tens of thousands” to more than 300,000, depending upon who you ask.

In other words, nobody knows.

But, given those daunting numbers, this snake hunt is obviously no more effective at eliminating Florida’s pythons than it would be to venture out with fly swatters to rid the Everglades of mosquitoes.

Still, I wondered, what’s the test like?

To pass it, you have to score 85% on a quiz that immediately follows the online tutorial. I only got a 78% score. But, in my defense, I stopped paying close attention after the portion dealing with the two-step snake-killing regimen.

But before you get to that gruesome activity, first you have to find a snake, which is no mean trick.

“Detection rates” are less than 5%, the tutorial advised. It is unclear how that percentage is arrived at since the total number of pythons appears to be unknown.

Where do snakes hide?

Among the places to look include: “In vegetation, in grass and under grass tufts, in trees, on manmade structures, along roads” and—I assume this although it was not specifically mentioned—in the air falling out of trees on top of you.

Snake hunters must exercise care. For instance, prospective snake sleuths are warned that pythons might “bite, constrict or defecate/musk when handled.”

Other safety precautions include making sure “you have a buddy with you” and to plan for “rocky and unstable ground, insects, heat, storms, wild animals (I assume this means, among others, alligators), and other hunters.”

Other hunters?

The tutorial did not elaborate on that particular safety precaution, but it was at about that point that I began hearing banjo music in my head as the theme song for Deliverance sprang to mind.

Snake hunters also need the right gear. This includes gloves, something called a snake hook, tools to “humanely kill the python” including, but not limited to, a “captive bolt stunner,” air guns, or “pithing tools.”

Pithing is Step 2 of the process for ensuring the python will not wake up after Step 1, which is hitting it in the head to stun it.

Step 2 involves the aforementioned “pithing tool,” often otherwise called a screwdriver.

Here’s a graphic that shows how that is done. If you are weak of stomach, you may want to skip over this part.

Okay, I warned you, here it goes.

Seriously, it’s gross.

Following pithing—and possibly vomiting—hunters are supposed to check to make sure the snake has actually gone to heaven. How is this done? Observation.

Of course, the surest way to tell is if the python’s heart is no longer beating, but no instructions were given on how to check for a pulse.

Otherwise, the technique is to see if “breathing has stopped and that righting reflex is absent, vocalization (hissing) is absent, and no palpebral reflexes or responses to noxious stimuli are present.”

Not sure what noxious stimuli are intended for that test, but by that point, my guess is that a screwdriver would qualify.

All the snakes are then to be taken to one of several stations scattered throughout South Florida, where forms will be filled out, snakes will be weighed and measured, and, after all that paperwork is completed, hunters may claim their trophies, which will be turned into boots or footballs such as this:

Florida snake and football

I suppose I could go back and retake the test to qualify for my python hunting experience, but I think the real purpose of that tutorial is to keep amateurs like me out of the swamp where they probably would just hurt themselves.

Reference:

Florida Python Challenge 2026

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J.C. Bruce

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