US snake hunters fight pythons big enough to devour gators

BBC ^ | 3 Aug 2023 | Max Matza

[DUMBGRUNT]

The Florida Python Challenge draws in hundreds of participants each year from as far away as Canada, Belgium and Latvia who are charmed by the prospect of fame and fortune, including up to $30,000 (£23,600) in prize money.

Recent Python Challenge winners include a deaf science teacher who bagged a nearly 16ft snake with his bare hands, a father-and-son duo who rapidly despatched 41 snakes and a 19-year-old who said he would use his $10,000 prize to buy better snake-spotting lights for his truck.

..."Once it slithered out in the road, I got to see the massive size of this thing and realised we're getting into a fight a little bit more intense than I thought we were getting into," he says.

After they caught it, the snake was declared the largest in the state's history.

Some of the snakes he kills are brought to school to show his curious pupils, who are also deaf. Sometimes they dissect them as a class project.

"My students are always really excited when I do that."

... Authorities encourage people around the world to buy python leather from Florida, and discourage hunters from eating them due to their high levels of mercury. But that advice doesn't stop a few dedicated hunters from making everything from python jerky to snake-egg cookies.

[RoosterRedux]

There used to be a restaurant in NYC (Tribeca) named Le Bon Temps Roule that served alligator tail. I think I had it, but it’s been a very long time.

[pnz1]

I believe there’s a company that will take you on python and iguana hunts.

[Rockingham]

And there are Florida's invasive snakehead fish, walking catfish, and several species of parrots. Walking door to door for a GOP candidate some years ago in south Florida, I stopped at a house but had trouble having a conversation with the resident voter because a flock of parrots landed in the yard just as I arrived and began squawking loudly. The lady apologized and quieted them with a large serving of bird seed and cut up fruit. She confided that her dog and cat were afraid of them and would avoid going outdoors until the parrots had been fed.

[Hiddigeigei]

"And let's not forget iguanas..."
Every time I go outside at my Miami suburban, but wooded third acre home, I see a different kind of lizard, but nothing like the one in the picture. If I did, I would shoot it. Its skin would make an interesting wall hanging.

[AppyPappy]

” a deaf science teacher who bagged a nearly 16ft snake with his bare hands”

That’s a bad mothershutyomouth

[Graybeard58]

Troy Landry said that they tasted like one of the tires off his Jeep.

[E Pluribus Bellum]

Are these pythons edible (I mean “tasty” edible)?

I had snake soup many years ago when I was in China (the REAL Evil Empire). It looks like and has the consistency of mushrooms, but a little tougher.

[SheepWhisperer]

A “Florida hold”!

...always makes the fish look bigger.