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For decades, the Everglades acted as a containment zone for the Burmese python invasion. Not anymore.

Researchers are now tracking a growing population moving north into Charlotte County and spreading aggressively. These snakes hit 20 feet long and tip the scales at 250 pounds. They have no natural predators in Florida. They eat deer. They eat bobcats. They eat alligators.

The ecological reality is staggering. Since the pythons took hold, native mammal populations in Everglades National Park have plummeted by up to 95%.

Wildlife officials have pulled more than 27,000 pythons out of the state since 2000. But a single female can lay more than 100 eggs at a time, meaning the math is entirely on the snakes’ side. Florida is launching an annual hunting challenge to try and slow the spread, putting up $25,000 in prize money for the public to help. But the network of warm, connected wetlands shows exactly where the invasion is heading next.