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When play a Snake River sinewy enough to eat a live alligator , most people would be charm to hunt down in the other direction .
But in the Florida Everglades , where the first - ever Python Challenge is scheduled to start this Saturday , C of volunteers will be running after the invasiveBurmese pythonsthat have wreaked havoc on the ecosystem , reports theSun - Sentinel .
This Burmese python, weighing 162 pounds and more than 15 feet long, was caught alive in the Everglades and was found to have eaten an American alligator that measured about 6 feet in length.
The pillage for the hunter who bags the largestBurmese pythonis $ 1,000 ; whoever bring in the most pythons over the 30 - day competition will receive $ 1,500 , agree toNewsmax .
The FWC recommends killing pythons with a bullet or shotgun blast to the head , account the Sun - Sentinel . Alternately , a captive bolt of lightning , which sends a metal shaft into the animal ’s brain , is also recommend . Decapitation is consider inhumane because the constrictors can survive several minutes after the brain is come apart from the body .
It ’s estimated that ten of thousands of pythons now populate the Everglades region . The constrictor , which are native to south Asia , are consider to have spread after being released by exotic preferred owner in the nineties . Though the animals are not considered a threat to humans , they have been known to consume predators as large as leopards and full - grown deer , according to theU.S. Geological Survey .
