See how Conservancy of Southwest Florida staff track and capture Burmese pythons
Watch the Conservancy of Southwest Florida python tracking team as they capture three new males and one new female Burmese python during breeding season.
Provided by Conservancy of Southwest Florida
- The 2025 Florida Python Challenge, a competition to remove invasive Burmese pythons, runs from July 11 to 20.
- The challenge aims to raise public awareness and encourage reporting of python sightings.
- FWC is exploring new technologies like infrared cameras to improve python detection rates.
Ahead of the 2025 Florida Python Challenge, the Naples Daily News and The News-Press interviewed Zac Chejanovski, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Python Management Coordinator.
This year’s Florida Python Challenge is scheduled to start July 11 at 12:01 a.m. It 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. During the 10 days of the competition contestants have to kill as many Burmese pythons as possible.
The Florida Python Challenge is the FWC’s most high profile effort to raise awareness about the snakes which are not native to Florida and 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.
Python expert Q&A: FWC’s Zac Chejanovski
As the Python Management Coordinator for the past two years, Chejanovski said his job entails job “everything non-native constrictor snakes.” He has a team of three three − one handles contract management and the other two have a primary purpose to do python surveys, approximately three days a week.
“My job is to coordinate with them and to coordinate with all of the FWC’s federal, tribal and governmental organizations because the python problem is is pretty widespread. It requires a really big team effort among multiple organizations so it’s my job to coordinate everyone,” Chejanovski said.
Question: Why is the summer a good time of year for the Florida Python Challenge?
Answer: We used to have the Python Challenge in the winter months. This is the time of year when all of the hatchlings are coming out.
How are things going with preparing for this year’s Florida Python Challenge?
We are very much looking forward to it. It’s our biggest event as a non-native program. The python problem is so big so in addition to engaging the public inactive removal of a non-native species, one of the primary purposes of the Python Challenge is outreach. We can’t do this alone so the more the public knows about this problem the better they are able to report it to us and we can respond to instances if they are in a new area or an area outside of where we survey.
Are you seeing positive results in terms of that mission? Is it working?
We are seeing, definitely, a more educated public. And we are getting more calls then we ever have. People are just more aware of this problem. So, I get calls on the daily asking how can members of the public help. What’s great is we have aside from the challenge, we have an executive order that allows for the lethal take of non-native reptiles year round from commission managed lands and private lands with land owner permission. So, all of that is a success in our eyes.
Florida Python Challenge: How has it changed?
In what ways has the Florida Python changed since it was first held in 2013?
We are getting more applications to our contracted python removal program than we ever have. In addition to that there is ongoing research to look at how we can better manage these populations. For example, we have a contract with the University of Central Florida − one of the primary challenges we have with managing pythons is their cryptidness. They are very hard to see. Their detectability ranges from 1 to 5%, meaning you can cross paths with 100 pythons and you might see one of them.
So, one of the avenue’s that we’ve been exploring is the use of near infrared cameras and what that does is it degrades the camouflage of the python meaning that they are more visible. We are now in possession of what I am calling two python detection drones with this infrared camera technology and we will be testing that out hopefully in the next couple of months.
What remain or what are the biggest challenges to control the python population?
One of the big mantras of the non-native program is “don’t let it loose.” The reason the pythons are here is through most likely accidental and intentional releases of pets. So pythons are now regulated as prohibited so it is illegal to have them as a pet. But if anybody is in possession of a python currently, we have the exotic pet amnesty program which will grant and amnesty to anyone that owns a pet and we will re-home them to someone who is either licensed or an estate where the animal is not prohibited. This goes for more than just pythons.
It’s that, so don’t let your animals loose and also again that detectability and it’s really about education, so if you see something, say something. The way to say something is with our hotline. The number is 1-888 I’VE GOT ONE. If you are standing with a python, if you see a python, you can call that number and one of our hotline operators will answer and if you are with that python right then and there, we can dispatch someone to your location and remove it from the environment.
Have you seen any signs that native populations are recovering in areas where pythons are being controlled?
We don’t have the data to suggest that they are. We are hopefully going to be getting a lot more research on the native animal population. I know there’s that study that shows upwards of a 90% decline in native animal population, so we’d like to see more research in that area and hopefully see the results of what we are doing.
There’s some speculation that pythons will eventually run out of their food supply and that will be the end of them. Is this realistic?
.That’s really hard to answer. I will say pythons can go a really long time without a meal. They can go upwards of a year without food and that’s what makes them so a good invasive species because even when there’s a lack of food they can just hunker down, their metabolism ramps down. Their organs can atrophy so that they’re not spending energy maintaining them when they are not eating. They have all of the adaptations to survive in some of the harshest conditions.
I don’t know if we can depend on that. To be honest, I hope they don’t run out of food because they means are native populations will even further decline. I don’t want to wait for that and I really hope we can control the population as it stands now.
Do pythons have any natural predators?
And on top of that, pythons really don’t have an enemy out there and that’s another challenge, right?
We are the No. 1 enemy. We do have some instances where some of our native animals are fighting back. We have reports of alligators and even some of the big cats like bobcats and panthers … while we can’t rely on our native populations to fight back − this is an animal they are not evolutionary adapted to, they have spent their entire evolutionary history without them and then ever since the 70’s they showed up. So we don’t want to rely on them but it’s at least good to see our native animals are posing a fight.
Why does the Florida Python Challenge start at 12:01 a.m.? Why that specific time?
So, during this time of year pythons are most active at night and we wanted to make sure to give every opportunity that we could at night so we wanted to make sure people are aware that it starts at midnight so you can go out and start surveying the night the challenge begins.
Any particular message or messages you want to share as this year’s Florida Python Challenge gets underway?
All of our information is available on the Florida Python Challenge website (flpythonchallenge.org). We also have every third Thursday we have what we call a virtual Python Patrol, completely free. You can register via our website. So if you type into Google FWC python patrol you will get all of that information. It is hosted by a biologist and you can ask questions and they will tell you all about pythons, where to find them and what to do when you find them. And also give information about our hotline.