So What Are You Doing for Fun…. This Weekend :)

Are you maybe taking  the kids/grandkids to Wild Water Works?
Perhaps you are enjoying a late brunch at your favourite restaurant.
Or enjoying a bike ride along the scenic Niagara Parkway.

Here is what they are doing for kicks in the Florida Everglades this weekend.

More than 800 people have ventured into the dense vegetation of Florida’s Everglades, where they will compete to humanely capture invasive Burmese pythons for the next few days in a bid to win thousands of dollars in prize money.   The annual python removal competition kicked off Friday at 8am  and will run through 5pm tomorrow.

Pythons are native to Southeast Asia, but have been wreaking havoc in the Florida since the 1970s, wiping out populations of rabbits and foxes in the Everglades National Park.

So far, the registered hunters represent 32 states and Canada. Registrations are being accepted throughout the competition. It costs $25 to register and participants must also complete an online training course.    Cash prizes of up to $2,500 are available in both the professional and novice categories for those who remove the most pythons, officials said. There are additional prizes for the longest python in each category.

The Florida Python Challenge has led to the removal of more than 17,000 snakes since its inception in 2000.   Researchers at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida captured this massive female python that turned out to weigh 215 pounds and measure 17.7 feet long.

I am just wondering about the answer to this question:  What happens when the burmese python decides to remove you from the everglades?

Source:  dailymail.co.uk

Photo:  pexels.com