Florida snake woman: What it’s like to catch 60 pythons with your bare hands.

This as-told-to is based on a conversation with 29-year-old Taylor Stanberry, the grand prize winner at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s 2025 Florida Python Challenge. The 10-day competition is a conservation event held in the Everglades to fight the invasive Burmese python population in South Florida. The pythons are believed to have been initially introduced through the pet trade and are now threatening the native wildlife . (All captured snakes are killed.) Stanberry caught 60 pythons—three times the number of last year’s winner—and collected $10,000. She is a seasoned snake hunter, but this competition produced some unique challenges, even for her. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

I moved to Florida when I was 6 years old.