First day of Florida hunt nets a nearly 10-foot python

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Florida's effort to get rid of pythons in the Everglades didn't take long to start showing success.

Trappers caught a nearly 10-footer Friday within about an hour of setting out. It even shocked the experts to find one that quickly.

The number of pythons in South Florida and throughout Everglades National Park has exploded in the past decade to potentially tens of thousands. Wildlife officials don't really know how many there are.

Scientists think pet owners free their snakes into the wild once they get too big to keep. They also think some Burmese pythons may have escaped from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever since.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is allowing a few snake experts with permits to begin hunting, trapping and killing the snakes.