Big snake news in 2025: Naples woman won top prize in python competition

Mark H. Bickel, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News

Sat, December 27, 2025 at 10:01 AM UTC

1 min read

There was some big snake news in 2025.

Taylor Stanberry, a Naples native, was the 2025 Florida Python Challenge winner and the first woman to ever win the competition. She captured 60 of the invasive Burmese pythons, including finding 30 hatchlings in a single nest during one night of the challenge that was held for 10 days in July.

Stanberry told The Naples Daily News that although she’s been python hunting with her husband, Rhett, for years (she has more than a decade of experience), this was her first time participating in the challenge held by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Florida Water Management District.

The biggest python Stanberry caught in this year’s challenge was between 9.5 and 10 feet long, more than double her height at 4-feet, 11-inches. Don’t worry, she’s aware that her height is one of the most recognizable things about her. She’s known to her almost 69,000 Instagram followers as @taylor2short.

Stanberry said that she also caught a 12-footer the day before the challenge kicked off, which obviously did not count toward her total of 60, since it was before the official start of the challenge.

“I have been catching pythons for over 10 years. It’s all about knowing what areas to hunt, what habitat to look for and just putting in the time,” Stanberry said.

“Some nights I go out and won’t find a single python, then other nights, I’ll find a nest of 60 babies (hatchlings)! I would tell newbie hunters to just put in the time. I’ve heard from some that they’ve hunted for a few hours and caught nothing.”

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Who captured the most snakes in the 2025 Florida python challenge?

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