Fashion trend forecasters should flag snake skin as the next big thing in the Sunshine State.
The invasive Burmese python, which has been terrorizing the natural wildlife of the Florida Everglades for decades, is getting its comeuppance.
Florida’s python problem began during the exotic pet boom of the 1980s, when many owners let loose the native-to-Southeast-Asia snake after realizing how large they grew to be. Hurricane Andrew of 1992 compounded the problem, releasing hundreds of pythons when it destroyed a python breeding facility in the Everglades.
The invasive species has run rampant throughout the wetlands of Florida, attacking and killing native species like raccoons, deer, foxes, and even alligators, while having no known natural predators of their own, besides large alligators, which can sometimes feed on small pythons. The largest of the Everglades constrictors can reach about 20 feet, and the female pythons can lay up to 100 eggs at one time.
Independent hunters have pursued the snake for decades to help control the invasive species, killing numbers in the low to mid hundreds without any organized government assistance.
In 2017, the state stepped in to create two programs that contract Burmese python hunters. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission started the Python Action Team Removing Invasive Constrictors, while the South Florida Water Management District created the Python Elimination Program.
Lisa Thompson, a spokeswoman for the FWC, told the Washington Examiner that the groups each employ approximately 50 contractors to hunt the pythons each year. She said the program has removed over 17,000 pythons from Florida since its first year.
“Once the FWC’s PATRIC and SFWMD’s PEP programs were launched, the numbers increased to approximately 1,600 to 3,000 per year from 2017 through 2024,” Thompson said of the number of Burmese pythons killed in the Everglades each year.
So far in 2025, the Sunshine State has seen unprecedented python removal success.
What has led to the python removal success this year?
Florida python hunters have removed over 2,700 invasive Burmese pythons in the first eight months of 2025, according to Thompson, reaching approximately the year-end total from 2024 by the end of August. She said the state is still verifying data from September and October.
Speaking behind a podium reading “PYTHON BE GONE,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) spoke to the unprecedented success of the program in 2025 at a press conference on Tuesday. He attributed the high numbers, in part, to the work his administration has done in increasing the access python hunters have to federal and state lands.
The state also set aside $2 million in the annual budget for the FWC’s PATRIC program and “provided record funding” to the state’s annual Python Challenge, in which residents compete to hunt as many Burmese pythons as possible in 10 days, according to DeSantis.
However, he pointed to the greatest success this year as coming from the state’s recent partnership with leather manufacturer Inversa, which ethically makes clothing from recycled invasive species.
“Last year we worked, with FWC leading, on a bold decision, and made a bold decision to engage a private sector partner to strengthen this program,” DeSantis said. “They partnered with Inversa, a Miami-based company that helps ensure biodiversity preservation through the ethical removal of invasive species to get this done. This company also markets leather made from these invasive species.”
DeSantis said the partnership helped deliver on their 2-year goal removal number “one and a half years ahead of schedule.” He said in the first three months of the partnership, the FWC has tripled its number of python removals.
Thompson told the Washington Examiner that Inversa and its trademark owner Quintessence Marine “assist staff with management of day-to-day operations of the PATRIC program with FWC staff oversight.”
The governor also told reporters that python hunters are getting paid about 60% better per snake removed under the public-private partnership. He said Inversa also produces python skin wallets, boots, and even footballs from the removed invasives.
Who are hunting these pythons?
Each state removal program contracts about 50 “qualified individuals with nonnative constrictor control experience and compensates them for nonnative constrictor removal from public lands,” Thompson said.
The state also encourages members of the public to remove pythons from designated public lands. In Florida, citizens can also legally remove Burmese pythons from private lands as long as they have permission from the landowner. Novice hunters can also participate in the state’s annual python challenge
“Python Action Team members need to be able to survey for nonnative constrictors, respond to survey requests in areas where nonnative constrictors have been reported, and verify captured nonnative constrictors (live or humanely killed) at designated drop-off locations or through virtual check-ins with program staff. Surveys are often conducted in remote areas on foot, by vehicle, or by watercraft,” Thompson said.
The FWC provides online training courses for Floridians to learn how to ethically remove the invasive pythons. The course teaches “people how to correctly identify Burmese pythons, distinguish them from native species, tips on how to look for pythons, and safe capture and humane killing methods,” Thompson said.
OFFICIALS WARN OF NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON NATIONAL PARKS AS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON
Because the species is wildly invasive and destructive to the Everglades, there is not much opposition to the removal programs, as long as the species are removed humanely.
Non-native species are still protected by the state’s anti-cruelty law, according to NBC Miami.
