The News-Press and Naples Daily News asked Kodiak Hengstebeck of the FWC 10 questions about this year's Python Challenge.

The annual python hunting competition runs from 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 10, to 5 p.m. Sunday, July 19. What to know ahead of ...

Also known as the "Python Huntress," Amy Siewe calls the annual Florida Python Challenge 'a circus and counterproductive.' ...

Florida's Super Bowl of python hunting, the 2026 Florida Python Challenge, begins Friday, July 10. For 10 days, snake hunters − professionals and novices − will be spread out at designated areas that ...

Moving the annual competition from January to July significantly increased the number of pythons captured. The timing of the challenge also coincides with the python hatching season, leading to more ...

The Florida Python Challenge is an annual competition to help control the invasive Burmese python population. Hunters must humanely kill captured pythons, and decapitation is not considered a humane ...

Python hunter and Naples native Taylor Stanberry won the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's annual Python Challenge last July, catching a total of 60 pythons during the 10-day ...