All posts tagged: pythons

Florida man will trade pizza for pythons

Florida man will trade pizza for pythons

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. We are almost halfway through the 2026 Florida Python Challenge, which means plenty of snakes have likely already been dispatched by this year’s hunters. But what do you do with the body of a recently disposed, 15-foot-long Burmese python (Python bivitattus), let alone multiple snake carcasses? There are plenty of options, but only one place is accepting pythons as payment for pizza. In Everglades City, about 75 miles west of Miami, a restaurant called Wildman’s Pizza, Pasta, and Python will take customers’ recently (and humanely) killed snakes in exchange for menu items. According to the establishment’s owner, Dustin Crum, it’s a fair deal for both parties—visitors get fed, and Crum gets supplies for his business. “We do python toppings, python pizza, iguana, you …

Pythons’ extreme biology may hold clues for treating human disease : NPR

Pythons’ extreme biology may hold clues for treating human disease : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Pythons have several unusual traits that scientists are studying for potential clues for treating human disease. Ari Daniel for NPR hide caption toggle caption Ari Daniel for NPR For new discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines, follow NPR’s Short Wave podcast. When Skip Maas first adopted Agrapina, a mottled ball python, she hadn’t eaten in 14 months. But as he soon observed, she was still a taut coil of spring-loaded muscle. Presented with a rat, she struck quickly, constricted it and then gorged on her meal. And then her body performed another feat pythons are known for: It accelerated its metabolism dramatically to deal with the sudden influx of protein and fats, says Maas, “to help break down that meal and extract all of its nutrients.” Most people prefer to keep their distance from pythons — and for good reason. A quick strike followed by relentless constriction can be lethal. But Maas, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and his colleagues argue that these snakes may hold secrets that …

Snake hunters gather in Florida to kill invasive pythons for ,000 in prizes

Snake hunters gather in Florida to kill invasive pythons for $25,000 in prizes

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. The day has finally arrived. On July 10, hundreds of professional and amateur snake hunters entered the annual Florida Python Challenge, a 10-day race to remove as many of the invasive animals as possible from the Everglades. The person who bags the most snakes will earn a $10,000 first-place prize, while another $15,000 in payouts will go to various other categories, including for the longest snake captured. Conservationists estimate between 100,000 and 300,000 Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) live across the state’s subtropical regions, where they have thrived as apex predators since their accidental introduction into the wild during the 1970s. Pregnant females can lay upwards of 70 eggs at a time, and each hatchling can reach an adult length of 13-feet long. Despite …

Florida readies to battle invasive pythons with a new video PSA

Florida readies to battle invasive pythons with a new video PSA

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. There are anywhere between 100,000 and 300,000 invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) currently slithering through the Florida Everglades. You’d be forgiven for thinking far fewer of the destructive predators are causing havoc, however. The often 13-foot-long snakes perfectly blend into the ecosystem’s subtropical riverways and foliage. Conservationists estimate that less than five percent of them are visible to the average passerby. That means for every 20 pythons, only one is caught during Florida’s annual summer culling season. To help boost those numbers, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) recently released a brief PSA video advising on the best ways to locate and dispatch the ongoing troublemakers. Looking for Burmese Pythons It’s not as simple as grabbing a pair of binoculars, either. …

Scientists sacrifice delicious opossums to fight Florida’s invasive pythons

Scientists sacrifice delicious opossums to fight Florida’s invasive pythons

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletterđź’ˇ Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Some of Florida’s opossums may soon start dying for a noble cause. A few select marsupials fitted with tracking collars may begin to lead scientists to invasive Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) slithering through the Everglades. More specifically, researchers will home in on signals coming from inside the enormous snakes’ stomachs.  Florida’s decades-long python problem remains one of the toughest ecological challenges facing wildlife conservationists in the United States. Despite experts’ best attempts to highlight their nutritional value and even hunt them using robotic rabbits, the snakes have continued to decimate native animal populations, since they were introduced into the Everglades during the 1970s. Curtailing Florida’s unwanted apex predators is much easier said than done. Burmese pythons can grow upwards of 20-feet-long, and unlike humans, they are the species that is specifically evolved to thrive in subtropical wetlands. Local opossums, on the other hand, don’t have any problem traipsing through the marshy terrain the way we do. In 2022, North …