How Florida Became a Hopeless Python Hellscape

The 1992 Storm Released Hundreds of Pythons

When Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida on August 24, 1992, it carried 150-mph winds that ripped roofs off homes and flattened buildings across Miami-Dade County.

One of those buildings was a python breeding facility near the Everglades.

Hundreds of Burmese pythons escaped into the swamps that day, and nobody knew it would become the costliest environmental disaster the storm left behind.

Pet owners had been releasing pythons for years, but Andrew turned a small problem into an invasion that would erase nearly every mammal from a wilderness the size of Rhode Island.

Exotic Pets Were Already Escaping

The python problem started before Andrew, back in the 1970s when exotic pet dealers began importing baby Burmese pythons to Miami.

The snakes were trendy in the 1970s and 80s, but owners quickly realized a predator that can reach 20 feet long and 200 pounds makes a ridiculous pet.

When the snakes outgrew their cages, owners released them into the wild.

The first Burmese python found in the Everglades was in 1979, likely a former pet released or escaped into the wild.

But these scattered releases weren’t enough to establish a population. The snakes needed numbers, and Andrew provided them.

A Category 5 Storm Changed Everything

On August 23, 1992, Andrew made landfall south of Miami as a Category 5 hurricane, one of the most powerful ever to hit the United States.

The storm demolished exotic wildlife facilities across the region.

State environmental inspectors reported that thousands of exotic species escaped their caging during the passing of the storm through south Dade County.

The hurricane demolished a python breeding facility and sent about 900 pythons into the same general area of the Everglades, creating the epicenter of the invasion.

The snakes slithered into the swamps and vanished.

The Everglades Were a Perfect Home

The pythons couldn’t have landed in a better spot.

The habitat of the Everglades is perfect for them: it’s warm, they do well in muddy, marshy habitats, and there was a huge food base that was totally unadapted to deal with them.

The Everglades stretch across 1.5 million acres of subtropical wetland, filled with mammals, birds, and reptiles that had never encountered a 20-foot constrictor.

There was nothing to keep them from doing very well.

Native predators like alligators and panthers couldn’t control them, and the dense vegetation made them almost impossible to find.

Scientists Confirmed the Worst

The first sighting of a python in the Everglades was between 1980 and 1990, but by the early 2000s, scientists had confirmed the presence of a breeding population.

Researchers began finding eggs, hatchlings, and gravid females throughout the park. By this point, they were listed as invasive, creating an irreversible turning point.

The window for stopping the invasion had closed.

From 1995 to 2000, 11 pythons were sighted or captured in the southwestern part of Everglades National Park, miles away from the destroyed reptile facility in Homestead.

The snakes were spreading.

Mammals Started Disappearing

The pythons ate everything.

A 2012 study found that populations of raccoons had declined 99.3 percent, opossums 98.9 percent, and bobcats 87.5 percent since 1997.

Marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and foxes effectively disappeared. Scientists conducting road surveys that once counted dozens of animals per night now found almost nothing.

In the approximately 40 years since the establishment of Burmese pythons, medium-sized mammals have declined by over 90 percent.

The Everglades food web was collapsing.

Pythons Ate Their Way Up the Chain

The snakes didn’t stop at small mammals.

Gut analyses indicate that captured pythons consume nearly any bird, mammal, or alligator found in the Everglades, including nationally endangered Key Largo woodrats and wood storks.

Researchers found deer, wading birds, and six-foot alligators inside python stomachs. With prey vanishing, the already endangered Florida panther struggles to find food.

The pythons had become the top predator in an ecosystem where they didn’t belong, and native species had no defense against them.

The Snakes Kept Getting Bigger

On July 10, 2023, a group of hunters captured the longest python ever documented in Florida: a 19-foot female in Big Cypress National Preserve.

The snake was as long as an adult giraffe is tall. During the necropsy, researchers found a record 122 developing eggs within the snake’s abdomen.

The previous record was set in 2020 by a python stretching 18 feet 9 inches and weighing 104 pounds. The heaviest python ever captured in Florida weighed 215 pounds and measured nearly 18 feet, caught in June 2022.

Florida Launched Bounty Programs

The state started paying people to hunt pythons.

The South Florida Water Management District now offers variable hourly rates plus a $1,000 monthly bonus to whichever contractor catches the most pythons.

In 2024, 857 participants from 33 states and Canada removed 195 pythons during the annual Florida Python Challenge, with the winner taking home $10,000 for catching 20 snakes.

In 2025, the Python Action Team removed 1,022 pythons in just three months, compared to 343 during the same period in 2024.

Dogs and Scout Snakes Joined the Fight

Hunters needed help finding snakes that blend perfectly into the swamp.

Detection dogs are estimated to be 2.5 times more efficient at tracking pythons than humans alone.

In Everglades National Park, detection dogs had a 92 percent success rate compared to 64 percent for human search teams.

Researchers also started implanting radio transmitters in male pythons and releasing them as “scouts.” During mating season, these scout snakes lead researchers to other pythons they would never find otherwise.

Over 23,000 Pythons Removed

Since 2000, more than 23,000 Burmese pythons have been reported removed from Florida’s environment. But experts say that barely makes a dent.

Biologists estimate that number represents only about 1 percent of pythons ever seen or captured. An estimated 250,000 Burmese pythons would need to be caught to perhaps rid the Everglades of the creatures.

The population keeps growing. A typical female breeds every other year and produces between 20 and 50 eggs. Some nests contain over 100.

Andrew’s Legacy Is Permanent

The odds of eradicating an introduced population of reptiles once it has spread across a large area is very low.

With the Burmese python now distributed across more than a thousand square miles of southern Florida, the chances of eliminating the snake completely from the region is low.

Experts say once an invasive species gains a foothold in an ecosystem, it’s there to stay, often with devastating consequences.

Thirty-three years after Hurricane Andrew tore through Miami, its most destructive legacy isn’t the buildings it destroyed. It’s the snakes it set free.

Visiting Everglades National Park, Florida

Everglades National Park covers 1.5 million acres at the southern tip of Florida.

The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, located at 40001 State Road 9336 in Homestead, is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Entrance costs $30 per vehicle and is valid for seven days.

The Anhinga Trail near the Royal Palm Visitor Center offers one of the best chances to see wildlife, including alligators.

You probably won’t spot a python, but they’re out there.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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