Everybody wins but the 68 snakes nabbed in Florida's Python Challenge

Two Miami men didn't get credit for catching the longest python in Florida's Python Challenge over the weekend. University of Florida professor Frank Mazzotti says he messed up when he announced the permit-holder category winner of the widely hyped competition, which was held to reduce the python population in Florida. (They're regarded as pests who unbalance the local ecosystem.) The winner was not Ruben Ramirez, who nabbed a 10-foot-7-inch snake and basked in the resulting media glory. Instead, 20-somethings Blake Russ and Devin Belliston, who caught an 11-foot-1-inch Burmese python, should have slithered off with the win. Both Russ and Belliston, as well as second-place-finisher Ramirez, will be awarded $1,000, but the biggest bragging rights belong to three Fort Myers pals who captured the non-permit-category honors with a 14-foot-3-inch python. Not that size matters. [Source]

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