ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters)-a python hunt competition starting Saturday is drawing hundreds of amateurs armed with clubs, machetes and guns in Florida's Everglades, where Burmese Pythons caught exceeded the length of minivans and weighed as much as grown men.
Python 2013 challenge, a month-long event sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is open to hunters and non-hunters alike.
But the idea of baiting amateurs wielding a weapon in the harsh environment of the Everglades has raised some alarms.
"I just thought it was so exciting as it could be. Is an opportunity to once-in-a-lifetime, "said competitor Ron Polster, a retired salesman from Ohio whose closest encounter with the swamp was southbound heading for winter.
Participants pay a registration fee of $ 25 to attend an online training course, which mostly consists of looking at photographs of the targeted native snakes and Pythons proteges to learn the difference.
The State Agency of wildlife is offering prizes of $ 1,500 for most Pythons captured and $ 1,000 for the longest Python.
A Burmese Python found in Florida last year set records as the largest ever caught in the 17-foot, 7-inch (5.4 meters). The snake weighed about 165 pounds (75 kg).
FWC spokeswoman Carli Segelson said the number of registered participants has reached about 500 this week and was growing, with people from 32 countries.
The stated aim of the competition is to raise awareness of the threat Burmese Pythons lay the Everglades ecosystem. The snakes are native of Southeast Asia and no known predators in Florida.
The competition also serves as a pilot program to determine whether regular hunting contests can bring down the growing population of invasive species, said Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife expert at the University of Florida, who helped create the competition.
Python challenge rules require competitors to kill animals on the spot in a humane manner, recommending shooting snakes through the brain.
"I was hoping there would be a lot of machetes and not a lot of weapons," said Polster, the retired salesman. He said that he is concerned about "these idiots will be firing all over the place."
Shawn Heflick, star of the TV show "Wild" National Geographic "Python hunters," told Reuters that despite the formidable size of snakes, expects the swamp itself, with its alligators, crocodiles and poisonous snakes, represent a greater threat to competitors.
"You get these people going down there, get lost, you can get dehydrated, you'll get sucked dry by mosquitoes," Heflick said.
Segelson said that wildlife agency will provide training on the use of GPS devices and on identifying poisonous snakes at the kick-off event. Meanwhile, he said, candidates should be familiar with the environment of the Everglades, just as they should before entering any other territory.
Heflick said that most likely competitors are drawn to the challenge of Python from the romantic mystique of a gigantic bagging predator. He expects that few will last a long time in hunting.
"The vast majority of them will never see a Python. Most of them will probably limit their hunting very quickly when they realize there's a lot of mosquitoes, is warm, it is pretty boring sometimes--most of the time really, and I think a lot of them will go home, "Heflick said.
(Edited by Tom Brown and Dan Grebler)
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Zara and Tess Guthrie (left); Tex Tillis with the python (Guthrie/Australian TV/Brisbane Times)