Florida is famous for having some of the most bizarre stories in America.
Most of them involve something crazy that nobody could predict.
But a Florida man caught 87 pythons in one month and the reward had him grinning from ear-to-ear.
Aaron Mann turned python hunting into serious cash
Most Florida residents stick to fishing or golfing for weekend activities.
Not Aaron Mann – this guy decided to wade into the Everglades and make a living hunting some of the most dangerous predators in the state.
Mann bagged 87 invasive Burmese pythons in July alone, all through the South Florida Water Management District’s Python Elimination Program.
That impressive haul earned him a cool $1,000 cash prize for being July’s top python wrangler.
“Congratulationssss to Aaron Mann for capturing 87 Burmese pythons in July 2025!” the South Florida Water Management District celebrated on Instagram.¹
https://twitter.com/WGNMorningNews/status/1954831911412547615
Mann celebrated his success with hunting partner Christina Kraus, hoisting one of the massive snakes for a victory photo.
The timing couldn’t have been better for Mann, since the state just introduced these monthly cash rewards earlier this year.
Under the program’s incentive structure, python removal agents get paid $50 for each snake up to four feet long, plus an additional $25 for every foot beyond that length.
That means a 19-foot python captured in 2023 would be worth $425 under the current payment system.
But Mann wasn’t just hunting for the per-snake bounty – he was going after the monthly grand prize.
Smart move by Mann.
Mann’s haul puts other python programs to shame
Consider this: Florida’s annual Python Challenge brings in dozens of participants for a 10-day hunting event.
Last year’s entire field of competitors managed to kill 200 pythons total.
Mann basically captured nearly half that number all by himself in 31 days.
The 2024 Python Challenge winner took home a hefty $10,000 prize after removing just 20 snakes.
That works out to $500 per snake – not bad for a 10-day event.
But Mann’s approach was clearly more about volume than individual snake value.
His 87-snake haul in July shows there’s serious money to be made for anyone willing to wade into the Everglades and get their hands dirty.
The state isn’t just relying on human hunters either.
Florida has deployed “cartoonish robot rabbits” that alert officials when they spot a python.
Once the robots detect a snake, removal teams are dispatched to capture it – and those agents also get paid for their efforts.
The python invasion threatens Florida’s ecosystem
Burmese pythons started showing up in Florida’s Everglades back in the 1990s, thanks to “accidental or intentional releases by pet owners.”²
The problem is these massive reptiles have no natural predators in Florida to keep their population in check.
They can grow up to 18 feet long and have the ability to consume prey as large as a full-grown deer.
With nothing to stop them, they’ve been aggressively preying on native birds, mammals, and reptiles for over 30 years.
State officials have no idea what the exact python count could be by now, but they know it’s gotten completely out of control.
Approximately 19,000 to 23,000 pythons have been extracted from the Everglades since 2000, but that’s apparently just scratching the surface.³
Since 2013 alone, over 20 tons of these invasive snakes have been pulled out of just a 200-square-mile area in Southwest Florida.
That gives you an idea of how massive this problem has become.
Florida fights back with cold hard cash
Leave it to Florida to come up with the obvious solution that bureaucrats everywhere else missed.
Mann’s thousand-dollar payday shows exactly why this approach works better than anything coming out of Washington, D.C.
The Python Elimination Program represents a smart approach to conservation – instead of just throwing taxpayer money at another failed bureaucracy, they’re paying results-oriented hunters like Mann to actually solve the problem.
And Mann clearly knows what he’s doing out there in the swamps.
His 87-snake haul in one month puts him in elite company among Florida’s python hunters.
The program also serves as a model for how states can tackle environmental challenges without creating massive new government programs.
Pay people to get results, and you might be surprised what gets accomplished.
Mann’s $1,000 payday proves that sometimes the free market approach works better than anything Washington, D.C. could dream up.
Florida’s python program shows what happens when the government gets out of the way and lets Americans solve problems themselves – with the right financial motivation, of course.
The Sunshine State’s python invasion isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but at least now there are people like Aaron Mann making good money while protecting Florida’s ecosystem.
And that’s a win-win situation that even the most skeptical taxpayer can appreciate.
¹ South Florida Water Management District, Instagram Post, South Florida Water Management District, August 2025.
² Michelle Vecerina, “Florida man nets 87 pythons in a month, collects $1K bounty,” New York Post, August 12, 2025.
³ Sierra Rains, “Florida man removes 87 Burmese pythons from Everglades, takes home $1,000 prize,” WFLA, August 10, 2025.
Â
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: rgcory
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.desantisdaily.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
