Thousands of individuals from all across the United States and the world have kept their fingers crossed in Florida’s public sweepstakes to kill Burmese pythons. Jake Waleri, a 22-year-old resident of Naples, said his main aim for participation in the unusual tournament is to kill snakes during his summer break from the University of Ohio. Waleri claims to be knowledgeable about Burmese pythons, an invasive species that has taken over the Everglades and wreaked devastation on Florida’s natural ecology.
He claims he became interested in python hunting after watching professional hunters on television and started hunting the snakes himself two years ago. He competed in the state’s annual python hunting tournament named “Florida Pythons Challenge” last year, but stopped out halfway through since he was falling behind in the rankings. “This year I want to win it,” he said. Every year, hundreds of players from Canada, Belgium, and Latvia are drawn to the Florida Python Challenge by the chance of fame and fortune, which includes roughly $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money.
The competition is critical for reducing the damage that the Burmese python has caused on Florida’s Everglades
Recent Pythons Challenge winners include a father-and-son team who dispatched 41 snakes in record time, a deaf science teacher who grabbed a 16-foot snake with his bare hands, and a 19-year-old who said he will use his $10,000 prize to buy snake-spotting lights for his truck. Waleri and his cousin, known as the Glade Boys, intend to hunt snakes every night until the event begins on August 4. He stated that they will have energy drinks and “a lot of bug spray – that’s important” for the 10-day marathon competition.
He will also take chest-high waders in case he needs to enter the water, a roll of tape to shut the python’s mouth before the kill, and a snake stick to move native dangerous snakes off the road so that cars do not hit them. “If you’re not comfortable with snakes, you’re going to feel very, very out of place when you’re trying to go grab that head. When you hesitate – then you got your hand right in front of that snake’s head and it’s gonna bite you,” he said.
According to local conservationists, the competition is critical for reducing the damage that the Burmese python has caused on Florida’s Everglades. The Everglades contain the country’s largest subtropical wilderness area as well as the Western Hemisphere’s largest mangrove environment. UNESCO describes Florida’s southern tip as “a river of grass flowing imperceptibly from the hinterland into the sea” that supports a diverse range of flora and wildlife.