A woman from Naples has taken home the prize for capturing the most snakes during the 2025 Florida Python Challenge.
Taylor Stanberry came out on top in the yearly challenge after she captured 60 pythons in 10 days. In total, competitors captured 294 invasive reptiles, a new record for the challenge.
“It was crazy, actually, winning; I’m very honored to win it,” said Stanberry.
For the 29-year-old winner, it’s far from her first snake hunt.
“So I’m a python contractor for the state, so I do this for a job. So this really isn’t anything too new for me,” said Stanberry. “It’s kind of a normal day in the office, as you would call it.”
Stanberry has had plenty of run-ins with large snakes, but she said her most memorable find during the challenge had to do with much smaller ones.
“One night was fun; we found a nest of 30 babies and the eggs. We didn’t find the mom, she had already left the nest because they were hatching,” said Stanberry. “Two hours to find them all, because they’re in trees, they’re in bushes, they’re in the grass starting to crawl away, they’re in the water; it took a while to find them.”
When she isn’t working on catching pythons, Stanberry and her husband run an exotic animal sanctuary and post their adventures on their YouTube channel, “Tobie’s Troop.”
Stanberry also has a message for anybody who may think capturing snakes is an exciting activity to do for the thrill.
“If you’re going to hunt pythons, do it for the right reasons: saving the Everglades, saving the ecosystem. Don’t just do it because you want to kill a scary creature,” said Stanberry.
Stanberry’s prize for winning the challenge is $10,000. She said the prize money will be used on her exotic animal sanctuary.