This was not a good month to be a python. Especially for the Burmese pythons in the Everglades in Florida, where the serpents are considered an unwanted invasive species with a bounty on their heads.
The Florida Fish and WIldlife Conservation Commission announced Saturday that 68 Burmese pythons were killed in a month-long competition to rid the marshy Everglades of some of the tens of thousands of the snakes, which are considered a nuisance, according to a report by CNN.
The state-sponsored 2013 Python Challenge drew upwards of 1,600 registrants and offered prizes of up to $1,500 for dead snakes.
Reaching lengths of up to 18 feet, the Burmese python is one of the biggest snakes known to man. Florida officials consider the snakes to be "detrimental" to the Everglades.
Though the Burmese python can reach massive proportions, finding one of the huge snakes is not as easy as it may seem.
"You can go out there for days and days and days and not see one python," snake hunter Justin Matthews said last month, according to CNN. "I don't care how much experience you have. It is going to take some luck."
The snakes have no natural predators and have been attributed to the disappearance or decline in numbers of several species, the report stated. While the Burmese pythons of great lengths have been documented, the average size of the snake is between six and nine feet.
The longest python killed in the competition was 14 feet, three inches, winning the hunter a prize of $1,000.
A $1,500 grand prize for most pythons killed was awarded to both amateur and master hunter. The amateur prize winner killed six pythons and the professional hunter ended 18.
According to CNN, the recommended way for killing a python is by shooting it in the head or decapitating it with a machete.
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