Snake hunters capture dozens of pythons in “pay-per-slay” Super Bowl event

Days before the nation’s football fans descend on Miami for Super Bowl 2020, South Florida played host to a bizarre event in which participants from across America competed against each other to see who could hunt down the most snakes.

Over nearly two weeks spent in the Everglades National Park, the dedicated snake hunters captured a total of 80 Burmese Pythons.

The competition, which has been given the less than succinct moniker of the “Florida Python Challenge 2020 Python Bowl”, is one of a number of very different kind of events that have been organized in conjunction with the Super Bowl. The big game sees the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission counts the Burmese pythons as one of the most concerning invasive species in Everglades National Park. First introduced through the pet trade, the slithering serpents flourished in the swamps of South Florida. That’s partly because they have few predators, and will eat pretty much anything that moves, from rabbits to alligators.

The organizers of the Super Bowl hailed the effort of the snake catchers.

“The Miami Super Bowl Host Committee is very proud to have worked with these partners to bring attention to the threat that invasive species pose to The Everglades,” Rodney Barreto, chairman of the committee, said in a press release. “There are many men and women who work diligently every day to combat the harmful impacts of nonnative species and it is imperative that we are all educated on the effects of the Burmese pythons to our native wildlife.”

The reptiles have to be captured and killed humanely and legally, with the Python Bowl offering residents a free course on how to do that.

The competition is also supposed to help conservationists learn more about the pythons. The snakes captured this year will be studied to see what they recently ate and any trends in their size and genders, the wildlife commission said.

In a competition where participants were attracted by the pay-per-slay offer, prominent prize winners included Mike Kimmel who removed 8 pythons, earning him the top prize for the most snakes, which was a Tracker 570 ATV; and Tom Rahill who won $2,000 for capturing the longest snake — a 12-foot-7.3-inch python. He won another $2,000 because it was the heaviest at 62 pounds.