The contest begins January 12 and ends at midnight on February 10.
The contest won't amount to much success if you really know much about these snakes and temperatures . Here is the average temperature for Everglades State Park
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/USFL0138Its not even snake season Jan-Feb anywhere in Florida.
Kind of reminds me of a contest to see who sells the most ice cream to ice fisherman out on the frozen lakes up North. They are using the coldest month of the year to hunt down snakes in 50F -70F weather when looking for something that thrives when its 80+. Most of the snakes will be in a burrows and will have to be dug out and they should be rather sluggish!
If they even waited one month they would find more and more of them hunting prey and easier to find. They did select the safest time of the year considering Reptiles are not active in clouder periods ie: Gators, Lizards and Snakes.
I live in the upper part of the state and we rarely get the big snakes like they do down south. Most of my snake calls occur in Jun, July, Aug and Sep
http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/monthly/graph/32038The "largest snake" job I ran into was a 17 Ft. reticulated Python that I turned over to the state for safety reasons - not enough help. The
pics and the documentation will give you an idea of the enormity of the snakes possible here in Florida North or South.
http://thewildlifepro.net/forum/topics/large-snake-in-trenton-florida