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Burmese python over a pizza
The Florida Python Challenge is currently in full swing as hunters compete for the prizes up for grabs in the annual event devoted to the extermination of the invasive animals. Those competitors can also score some free food, as one restaurant is giving away pizzas topped with snake meat to anyone who provides them with that particular ingredient.
Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, and you don’t need to be a geography expert to know Florida is not located there. However, the state is home to a sizable population of those snakes, which have managed to gain a foothold in the Everglades and the surrounding area.
It’s widely believed that those pythons began to proliferate after they escaped from an exotic animal farm that was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992, although some experts believe the population can be traced back to unwanted pets that were deposited in swamps prior to that point.
Regardless of the origin story, the reptiles have more than managed to adapt to the ecosystem they’ve disrupted as an invasive species. No one knows how many there currently are in the Sunshine State, as estimates range from as low as 30,000 to as high as 300,000.
It’s been close to 15 years since wildlife officials declared open season by staging the inaugural Florida Python Challenge, the annual 10-day competition where hundreds of hunters do what they can to bring those numbers down.
There’s plenty of money to be made if you’re successful in that quest, and you can also score a free pizza if you roll up to one restaurant with a vanquished snake.
A pizza place in Florida is serving up free python pies to anyone who brings them a snake
The Florida Python Challenge was held for the first time in 2013, and last year, nearly 1,000 hunters removed a grand total of 294 snakes (including one who walked away with the $10,000 reserved for the person who bags the most after exterminating 60).
There are also smaller cash rewards for runners-up and people who catch the longest pythons, but if you end up on the outside looking in when everything is said and done, there’s still a consolation prize waiting for you at a restaurant in Everglades City.
According to NBC Miami, Dustin Crum, the owner of Wildman’s Pizza, Pasta and Python, has invited participants to bring in pythons they catch in exchange for a pizza they won’t have to pay for, saying:
“I’m the first place in the world to accept python as currency. So you can trade in a python for a pizza. We do python toppings, python pizza, iguana, you know, whatever. “
Crum acknowledged that his decision to give away python pizzas may have something to do with health code regulations that prevent him from charging money for it, and he also operates a store filled with products made from their skin, bones, and snake oils harvested from the fat.
You have to respect the hustle.