Florida launched its month-long "Python Challenge" Saturday, in a bid to get rid of the Burmese pythons that have invaded Florida Everglades and the surrounding wildlife areas, reports The Tampa Tribune.
Nearly 150,000 Burmese pythons are said to have infested the Florida Everglades. The invasive species has established itself as a breeding population since the 1980s. To tackle the growing population of the pythons, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has launched a contest which started at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Wildlife officials will offer a reward of $1,500 to the person who catches the most snakes, while a cash price of $1,000 will be given to whoever catches the longest snake. Around 800 people have registered for the python challenge, which will last until midnight of Feb. 10.
As of Monday afternoon, hunters had caught 11 snakes, agency spokeswoman Carli Segelson said. Some hunters have been unlucky in spotting the elusive snakes, owing to warm weekend temperatures.
"We saw hundreds of gators and beautiful migratory birds, but no pythons," Drew Reisinger, one of the hunters who signed up for the challenge, told CNN.
Reisinger hoped that the temperature would be cold enough for the pythons to set out basking in the sun. Unfortunately, the weekend temperatures were warm, around 80 degrees, which is above normal even for south Florida, he told CNN.
The state officials are expecting that the hunt will help in cutting down the number of Burmese pythons invading the Everglades.
Meanwhile, animal rights organization PETA has expressed outrage over the contest. The group has raised concerns over the ways instructed by the state officials to kill the snakes. One of the methods suggested to kill the snakes is by decapitating them, which PETA argues is cruel.
In a letter to the wildlife commission, the animal rights group asked the officials to follow procedures that will not allow the pythons to suffer when they are killed.
"This bounty hunt is misguided in the first place, but allowing hunters to decapitate pythons - who remain alive and in agony and who will writhe for an hour even after their heads have been cut off - is despicably cruel," PETA president Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a statement.
The snakes, native to Asia, were first introduced in the state most likely because of a pet owner who either released his snake or allowed it to escape, said the experts.
The invasive species has posed a major threat to the native snakes and other wildlife species like raccoons and foxes.