Python tacos? Python pizza? 'Chicken of the Glades?' Florida considered making invasive snakes a food source. Then science stepped in.

Hunters working across the Florida Everglades removed a record four tons of invasive Burmese pythons in a single coordinated effort, a haul that reflects both the staggering scale of the infestation and the expanding reach of state and federal removal programs.

Burmese pythons are recognizable by more than their size. Hunters should be on the lookout for a telltale, arrow-shaped marking on the snake’s head, along with giraffe-like spots across its body and dark spots around its eyes. During the summer months, they’re most likely to be found sunning on levee banks or near trees.

Still, scientists no longer consider complete eradication realistic.

Brandon Welty, a python researcher with Croc Docs, holds up an antenna and receiver to track where a male python during breeding season on March 11, 2026 in the interior of the northern Everglades. Ashley Miznazi amiznazi@miamiherald.com

The annual Florida Python Challenge is only a few weeks away, but participants will have trouble matching a new record set earlier this month. Between November 2025 and April 2026, researchers removed 177 apex predators weighing a combined 8,

Invasive reptiles may be quietly altering how plants regenerate, moving seeds across the Everglades and complicating efforts to restore balance.

A Florida man was hailed as a hero for catching an 8-foot-long invasive python, and then fined for it. Where is it legal to kill them?

It's official, the Florida Python Challenge this year has a winner. The $10,000 grand prize went to Ronald Kiger, who removed 20 Burmese pythons from the Florida Everglades during the 10-day hunt, which was meant to bring awareness to the threat that these ...

Florida researchers fitted GPS-collared opossums to track Burmese pythons from the inside — and the hidden biology of this tiny marsupial makes it the perfect secret weapon.