Snakes

Dustin Hooper, the owner of All Creatures Wildlife Control, dropped everything when he received a call from a frazzled Polk County woman saying a five-and-half-foot rattlesnake got into her chicken coop.

Python hunters from all over are in Florida this week, combing through more than a million and a half acres of Everglades to catch the invasive snakes during the Florida Python Challenge. They’re competing for $10,000 in grand prize money for the most pythons caught.

An annual hunt started Friday to try to reduce the number of Burmese pythons that threaten native wildlife in the Everglades. 

A team at fisheries and aquatics at the University of Florida has been studying invasive species at UF's Tropical Aquaculture Lab in Ruskin in an effort to prevent new invaders from destroying local environments.

Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off the 2021 Python Challenge, Florida's annual hunting competition to help eradicate the invasive species.

Wildlife officials are using a different tool to track down and remove Burmese pythons from the Everglades -- K9s.

One man’s unique approach to hunting invasive Burmese pythons may change how we hunt these swamp predators. 

Aaron Brown was driving when he spotted something on his family's property that required a second look. It turned out to be a 16-foot Burmese python with 100 eggs inside. 

Invasive snakes have been destroying Florida's native wildlife for years. Now some experts believe there's another reason to hunt down the pythons: They may contain a key ingredient used for the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Florida wildlife officials are training dogs to detect a python's scent in an effort to sniff out the invasive snakes in the Everglades -- and they've just had their first successful find.

A police officer nabbed an unwelcome intruder who was loitering in a South St. Pete park this morning: A 6-foot long python.

Floridians are used to spotting all sorts of wildlife, but the sight of a large rattlesnake slithering across the road would still make most do a double-take.

A Pinellas County family recently came across a rare phenomenon and reported it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Two hunters have broken a state record by removing the largest Burmese python to date from the Florida Everglades.

Florida hit another new milestone this week — 5,000 Burmese pythons have been captured in the Everglades since the state started paying hunters to track them down in 2017.