With the tally of pythons hunted and killed in Florida's much-hyped "Python Challenge" stalled at around 50, the retroactive lowering of the success bar is in full swing.

From the Miami Herald:

The haul from Florida’s much-ballyhooed Python Challenge, which wrapped up at midnight Sunday, may not sound impressive. After all, nearly 1,600 people signed up for a month-long hunt to win cash for catching an invasive species that has gobbled up everything from egrets to alligators in the Everglades.

In reality, the effort bagged pretty much what many scientists, reptile experts and Florida wildlife managers expected — lots of publicity, also known as public awareness, and lots of data for researchers. It also produced what may wind up ranking as a record monthly count of Burmese python skins, though the bounty hunt was never envisioned as a way to eradicate them.

[...]

“The only thing that comes close to generating the same number of pythons was a historic freeze,” [University of Florida wildlife ecologist Frank] Mazzotti said. “I think the challenge did a darn good job.”

From the New York Daily News:

The month-long 2013 Python Challenge, designed to cull the population of the non-native snakes, saw participation by more than 1,500 hunters from 38 states and one Canadian province.

Despite the sizeable turnout, the hunt, which went from Jan. 12 and to midnight Sunday, bagged only about 50 of the Burmese constrictors as of Friday.

But Carli Segelson, a spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says not to be fooled by the number.

"Burmese pythons are difficult to find,” Segelson told The News, “and are very-well camouflaged for that area.

“And they're tricky to capture even if you do find one," he added.

Science news service Phys.org took a more cynical view:

State wildlife officials are calling the invasive-snake bounty hunt a success, but for all the pomp and urgency, some hunters are not pleased.

"I don't feel the epidemic is as bad as they're saying," said Mike Singleton, 39, of Tampa, who participated in the hunt the first weekend, but became disillusioned and quit.

By the numbers, it doesn't sound good. At least 1,563 hunters registered to participate in the contest, which lasted a month. The number of Burmese pythons in the Everglades is said to be in the hundreds of thousands.

In the end, even they seemed to think the prospect of a pile of python carcasses would have been a good thing -- despite the apparent post-hunt assurances that such a goal never crossed anyone's mind.