Catching a python can be very challenging during the Florida Python Challenge. But when one is caught, there are rules for how to kill the invasive.

Burmese pythons in Florida are devouring animals as small as rabbits and as big as deer and alligators. How they do it is fascinating and unsettling.

A nighttime search in Big Cypress National Preserve ended with hunters wrestling a Burmese python that stretched 19 feet. The capture set a verified Florida length record after biologists at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida measured the animal.

Amy Siewe (far right) hunts by night in the summer, and is hoping one day to catch a legendary 20-footer (Credit: Amy Siewe) When invasive snakes began killing the Everglades' native wildlife, Florida came up with a plan: bring in bounty hunters.

Local wildlife officials sprang to action after a giant python in southwestern India was found lying motionless. The 10-foot animal had swallowed an entire deer and was reportedly unable to move.

"It was obviously only semi-constricted and was also in shock until all of its senses kicked back in."