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" With a couple days to go in Florida&amp;#039;s actually real Python Challenge, helicopters had to fly two men \u2014 one 25 years old, the other 22 \u2014 out of the Everglades and into rescue units for treatment of heat exhaustion and dehydration. According to NBC News, they&amp;#039;d called the sheriff&amp;#039;s office, complaining of light-headedness and weakness. The idea for the competition \u2014 which ends on Sunday, the first day of the unloved Year of the Snake \u2014 was partially brain-fathered by Gov. Rick &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve ridden elephants \u2014 I&amp;#039;ve never tried to shoot one&amp;quot; Scott. The hope was to at least partially rid the land of the invasive Burmese pythons that have set up their own stronghold. The guy or team that grabs the most wins $1,500. The one who snags the longest, gets $1,000. Over 1,500 people from across the nation have waded into the park so far, and some, like the two dehydrated men, who are from Tennessee, have slept in their cars during the hunt. It costs them $25 to participate. But even before the rescue, the competition hasn&amp;#039;t been going too well. As of Tuesday, only 50 had been captured. Not that it would&amp;#039;ve really mattered. As U.S. Geological Survey python expert Robert Reed told us a few weeks ago, &amp;quot;You won&amp;#039;t find any fewer than 10,000. But between 10,000 and 100,000? That&amp;#039;s anyone&amp;#039;s guess.&amp;quot; The bigger concern was sending off all these men to wade into the wilderness and track down such an elusive beast. As we wrote:  To some, the notion of dispatching a posse of armed out-of-staters to shoot up the Everglades in pursuit of large, deadly snakes sounded a little too quirky, even for Florida. Reed thinks the greater risk is venturing into the Everglades itself, where the competitors are more likely to blunder into poison wood, fall into holes, or get lost than they are to actually come face-to-face with a python. &amp;quot;You hear a lot of people saying that we nearly eliminated bison from the Great Plains so we should be able to eliminate pythons from a much smaller area,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;But a python in the Everglades is absolutely nothing like a bison standing on a prairie. We only see them rarely when they cross a road or bask on a levee.&amp;quot;  Also anyone&amp;#039;s guess: Why people would pay to go into the dark to track down pythons. But power to them, heat exhaustion and all. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a19213/python-challenge-isnt-going-well/?click=news>