Thomas Rahill claimed the top prize in Florida's 2026 Python Challenge after removing 96 Burmese pythons from the Everglades. Participants removed 280 invasive snakes during the annual conservation competition.

Florida Python Challenge 2026 winner Tom Rahill captured 96 invasive Burmese pythons in 10 days, all from Everglades National Park, shattering the all-time competition record by 60 percent. The 69-year-old founder of Swamp Apes,

Burmese pythons — destructive invasive snakes with few natural predators in Florida — have developed a new foothold outside the Everglades.

Photographer and writer Bob Bramblet is the past president of the Florida Outdoors Writers Association, and he wrote a book called 'Where the Python Sleeps'.

Florida biologists set a record removing 177 Burmese pythons totaling 8,080 pounds from the Everglades in one season, plus 4,100 eggs — and saltwater test

"They're finding these nesting females more frequently than they were previously."

An unusual discovery in the Florida Everglades may carry a bit of good news. Researchers spotted vultures eating eggs from a Burmese python nest in what they described as the first recorded case of native birds targeting the invasive snake's eggs.