Jon Kukk, a board member for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, and his wife, Julie, got the experience of a lifetime hunting a Burmese python.

Stan Daemer, 71, tangled with a blue indigo snake years ago on a dare. He wasn’t keen to face off with a python, but he spends time in the Everglades and wanted to learn what to do if he spotted ...

The program recently expanded to 35 scout snakes and has removed about 20,000 pounds of python from about 100 square miles in Southwest Florida, according to a Naples Daily News article last month.

As Ian Bartoszek, the wildlife biologist who oversees the nonprofit's python program, is fond of asking "What do you think it took to make 40,000 pounds of Burmese python?" The answer has been ...