On Friday morning at Everglades Holiday Park, Darren Bergmair and Pete Gutzmann, friends who traveled here from Fort Myers, learned how to catch a snake, namely the ubiquitous Burmese Python.
Teaching Bergmair and Gutzmann, along with other would-be python hunters, were instructors from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in preparation for the annual Florida Python Challenge. It kicked off Friday and ends at 5 p.m. Sunday, July 20.
The Burmese python is an invasive species in Florida, first discovered in Everglades National Park in 1979. It has no natural predator here, so it has proliferated and impacted native species for decades. The FWC's python hunt began in 2013 and has been happening every year since 2020.
Bergmair and Gutzmann said they wanted to learn something new and support conservation.
"Any way you can get out and maybe help some of the native animals out a little bit by trying to get rid of some of this problem, I think it's a good thing," Bergmair told WLRN.
Gutzmann, who said he is originally from Minnesota, said he appreciates wild wilderness and trying to maintain it.
The FWC instructors on this sunny Friday morning were Zac Chejanovski and Danielle Montesdeoca.
Using a stuffed snake, Chejanovski deftly demonstrated how to catch a real one. He first pinned it right below its jaw bone, grabbed its head and cautioned to make sure the tail wrapped around his leg — not his arms.
Montesdeoca then released a live female 8-foot-long Burmese python to show how to handle a live snake before allow participants to try it themselves.
Bergmair and Gutzmann were among the first participants to give it a try.
" It's a pretty simple activity," Gutzmann said, echoing a similar sentiment among others, many of whom held a snake for the first time.
"You know it doesn't seem like it's that big a deal until you put this stick on his neck and you grab him and he turns his head to try and bite you, and you realize this is real," said Gutzmann, who acknowledged the experience left him a bit shaken.
" I'm glad we had the chance to come out here and get a chance to try this, as opposed to being out in the wild if we ever ran into one," said Bergmair. "I was surprised. You know, it's not that difficult to pin 'em."
Most participants were able to pin the snake on their first try, but, as Chejanovski noted, catching the snake is not the hard part.
" You can cross paths with a hundred pythons and you might see one of them," he said. "So the most difficult thing about catching pythons is not the catching itself, but it's the actual spotting of the python."
According to the FWC, the goal of the Python Challenge is to raise awareness.
Chejanovski said he wouldn't blame people for not wanting to try and catch a python themselves, but being able to identify one and alert the FWC is an important step in combating the invasive species with no natural predator.
The FWC said estimating the size of the python population is incredibly difficult. Burmese pythons, they say, are a cryptic species, hard to detect even in grass as short as 3-6 inches high.
However, since the year 2000, the FWC has reported that more than 23,000 Burmese pythons have been removed from the wild.
Last year, 857 python hunters from 33 states and Canada took part in the annual 10-day "Florida Python Challenge," with the winner who caught the most snakes — 20 — collecting a $10,000 cash prize. In all, the hunters last year removed 195 invasive Burmese pythons from South Florida, according to FWC officials.
READ MORE: Invasive species cost the state millions. Here's what to know about them
Historically, the python population was centered within Everglades National Park in Miami-Dade. Burmese pythons also roam in areas just south of Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County.
There are multiple locations in Florida where people can participate in the python hunt, including Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park.
Members of different Florida Rotary Clubs have come together to participate in the hunt for the first time and support the Everglades.
Just like other python hunters, Tony Power, of the Naples Gulf Shore Rotary, caught a snake for the first time and said he as proud to do his part in reducing their population.
" What we wanna do is help to reduce that problem and not leave the Everglades without any wildlife."
The Florida Python Challenge ends a week from Sunday on July 20, but people can capture and humanely dispose of Burmese pythons all year round. They can also alert the FWC to a sighting.
Said instructor Chejanovski: " Every Python removed is a win for Florida's native species and for the Everglades as a whole."
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