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Python for Pizza: Florida Restaurant Pays in Slices
16 Jul
Summary
- A Florida restaurant offers free pizza for captured Burmese pythons.
- The promotion supports the annual Florida Python Challenge cull.
- The restaurant owner also sells python meat and products.
A Florida restaurant is uniquely incentivizing the removal of invasive Burmese pythons by offering free pizza in exchange for captured snakes. Dusty Crum, owner of Wildman's Pizza, Pasta and Pythons in Everglades City, calls his establishment the only pizza place worldwide accepting pythons as currency. This promotion directly supports the Florida Python Challenge, an annual state-sponsored effort to reduce the python population and protect native wildlife.
Crum actively participates in the python cull, hunting the elusive snakes often through all-night excursions. He describes the challenge as finding a '10-foot needle in a three-million acre haystack.' Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, pose a significant threat to Florida's ecosystem due to their large size, prolific breeding, and lack of natural predators. They prey on native wildlife, diminishing food sources for indigenous predators.
Beyond accepting pythons for pizza, Crum, a self-proclaimed 'swampepreneur,' also sells python-skin products and snake oil. While not officially on the menu due to butchering regulations, he sometimes serves sautéed python meat on his pizzas, describing its gamey flavor as 'good.' His restaurant serves as a central hub for participants of the Florida Python Challenge, where they share stories and strategies.
