At least 80 Burmese pythons were captured during the annual Florida Python Bowl held recently. The event attracted more than 750 hunters from across 20 states, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation said in a news release.

The event, which ran from Jan. 9- Jan. 19, was an initiative to eliminate the Burmese Pythons that were said to have been “decimating native wildlife populations in the Everglades.” They also sought to raise awareness about the importance of conserving the big serpents. Every participant was put through a customary online training, per the news release.

The winners were announced in the award ceremony Saturday. The top professional and rookie hunters were each awarded in separate categories in terms of who caught the longest and the heaviest pythons.

The grand prize, which happened to be a Tracker 570 off-road ATV, was won by Mike Kimmel for catching eight Burmese pythons. Rookie grand prize winner, Kristian Hernandez, won an ATV for removing six pythons, as well as $2,000 for catching an 11-foot, 6.5-inch snake.

One contestant, Tom Rahill, was awarded $4,000 for catching the longest python among them (12-feet, 7.3 inches), and the heaviest, a 62-pounder.

Barry Offenburger, a U.S Army veteran, was rewarded $1,000 for removing three pythons while Dave Mucci, a U.S. Air Force veteran, won $3,750 across several categories for capturing an 11-foot-long python which weighed about 50-pounds.

Florida organizes this contest every year in a bid to control the massive python population in the area.

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