OUTDOOR FACTOIDS: The "Python Challenge"

The recent "Python Challenge" in the Florida Everglades might have dominated the creepy critter headlines, but the Maryland Department of Natural Resources again this year is offering incentives for anglers to catch snakeheads.

Native to parts of Africa and Southeast Asia, the invasive, snakelike fish are top-level predators that now thrive in the Potomac River and several tributaries.

According to The Fishing Wire online news service, the Maryland DNR has added the snakehead to the list of species in its Volunteer Angler Survey. This year, Maryland anglers who catch a snakehead and record it to an online Angler's Log will automatically be entered in the volunteer survey with the chance to win prizes.

From 2010 through 2012, the Maryland DNR offered a Snakehead Contest, and anglers last year removed nearly 600 of the invasive fish from the Potomac River system. The new volunteer survey format replaces the contest, but the Maryland DNR hopes to use the catch data to assess snakehead populations. The fish were illegally introduced to the Potomac and now threaten more popular species in the river and its tributaries.

Info: dnr.state.md.us.

Recent polls conducted by HunterSurvey.com, ShooterSurvey.com and AnglerSurvey.com shed light on some of the most popular brands purchased by outdoors enthusiasts last year. A few highlights:

• Top rifle brand: Remington, Ruger (each 11.5 percent of all purchases).

• Top shotgun brand: Remington (19.7 percent of all purchases).

• Top muzzleloader brand: CVA (31 percent of all purchases).

• Top rifle ammunition brand: Remington (21.4 percent of all purchases).

• Top shotgun ammunition brand: Winchester (32.1 percent of all purchases).

• Top bow brand: Hoyt (15 percent of all purchases).

• Top arrow brand: Carbon Express (30.1 percent of all purchases).

• Top decoy brand: Mojo (10.8 percent of all purchases).

• Top game call brand: Primos (26.2 percent of all purchases).

• Top binocular brand: Bushnell (28.7 percent of all purchases).

• Top scope brand for firearms: Bushnell (14.5 percent of all purchases).

• Top rod brand: Shakespeare (10 percent of all purchases).

• Top reel brand: Shimano (21.1 percent of all purchases).

• Top fishing line brand: Berkley Trilene, PowerPro (each 11.2 percent of all purchases).

• Top hard bait brand: Rapala (23.5 percent of all purchases).

• Top soft bait brand: Berkley Gulp, Zoom (12.8 percent and 12.6 percent of all purchases).

• Top fish finder brand: Lowrance, Humminbird (43 percent and 42.9 percent of all purchases).

• Top tackle box brand: Plano (44 percent of all purchases).

• Top landing net brand: Frabill (34.9 percent of all purchases).

• Top fishing knife brand: Rapala (28.2 percent of all purchases).

National Parks generated $30.1 billion in economic activity and supported 252,000 jobs nationwide in 2011, according to a peer-reviewed report released last week by the National Park Service.

The statistics are based on the spending of nearly 279 million national park visitors; more than a third of that total spending, or $13 billion, went directly into communities within 60 miles of a park. The numbers are on par with previous years.

In North Dakota, the report showed Theodore Roosevelt National Park drew 563,407 visitors who spent $28.32 million in communities surrounding the park. That spending supported 451 jobs in the local area.

"Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a wonderful place to learn about America's story," Valerie Naylor, park superintendent, said. "We attract visitors from across the United States and around the world who come here to experience the park and then spend time and money enjoying the services provided by our neighboring communities and getting to know this amazing part of the country."

-- Compiled by Brad Dokken