A Conservancy of Southwest Florida team has made an unforgettable discovery deep in the Florida Everglades, when they stumbled upon the biggest Burmese python they have likely ever laid their eyes on just mere feet from them.

The team of wildlife biologists captured the eighteen-foot-long (5.5m), 215-pound (98kg) female Burmese python carrying 122 developing eggs. The monstrous sized reptile is the biggest ever caught in Florida.

Python project manager with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Ian Bartoszek stated: breeding behavior, and habitat use. And they discovered this monstrously large snake from a radio transmitter implanted in the male scout snake. The specimen was found in a remote area of Picayune Strand State Park.

“What do you think it took to make a 215-pound snake out there? That’s a lot of native wildlife, all of her friends, all of her boyfriends out there doing the same,” Bartoszek said. “We’re on to them.”
Their growth depends on what they eat.



Photo courtesy of Conservancy of Southwest Florida

The team found the largest female snake they had ever seen and tried to restrain it, however the python was not about to go down without a fight.

The biologist detailed his memories of wrestling the massive snake, revealing that she “threw her weight around” and even coiled the end of her tail into a “fist” and took a swipe at Findley.

“She put up a pretty good fight,” Easterling said. Findley, the intern, dogged a swipe from the python, but Easterling wasn’t as lucky and got slapped in the face with her tail.

After twenty long minutes, the team was successful in capturing the python.

The Daily Wire detailed this record-breaking discovery:


Garry-

just another invasive species, glad it's not in my backyard

Captured? Why.. ?

I'd just shoot it

They Killed it.... I don't know why they go to all of the work to capture them alive and then kill them. I would immediately kill them, especially the large one like that.

Garry-

Scott, they capture males and put a transmitter in them then release them back into the wild. The males then locate the females and the researchers can then locate the females. The females are dispatched and an autopsy is done for research purposes. If I recall correctly this female also had the remains of an adult whitetail deer in her.

Can make more than one pair of boots from that one

EXACTLY 12ga , if they are worried about lead use steel or bismuth or tungsten

Holy crap!! I’ve turkey hunted that WMA before. And I was worried about bears and mountain lions, lol!
I’m with everyone else, why capture it? I promise you even my little 20ga would have killed it stone cold dead!!

And a few belts and hat bands.....

Back in the nineties, I taught some classes for the Miami County Park District on reptiles of Ohio. Brukner Nature Center put me on a list of people who would take exotic reptiles. I would get calls a few times a month. Somebody called and wanted to give me a 23 foot Burmese Python, which is 5 foot longer than that one and much heavier. I thought about it and turned it down. If it got loose it could of ate any of my dogs and feeding it would have been prohibitively expensive.

I did take a 14 foot Burmese Python, that was found in an East Dayton alleyway. People who found reptiles were my most frequent calls, followed by people who were terrified of their own pets, mostly after getting badly bitten.

I sell tens of thousands of pounds of reptile food now, but don't have a single reptile anymore.

Keith

Caught back in December I believe

Thought to possibly be one of the earliest escapee/turnouts

Reptiles grow incredibly variably depending on food and temperature. Size is more important for breeding than age. You can grow an American Alligator to over 8 feet in 18 months, which would take years in the wild. Snakes are the same way.

Keith

I'd have killed it on sight - then dragged it out and done the autopsy later

Wonder what they taste like?

Burmese Pythons taste good. We ate python on New Year's Day around 5 years ago. My brother overcooked it. The flavor was good, but it was very chewy. Python is similar to rattle snake and fairly similar to alligator. I liked python better than iguana, but iguana was more tender.

Keith

People kill what they fear or don't understand.

No misunderstanding this menace. It should be a crime not to kill them

Exactly! Duck and Pheasant #4's sound about right?

Machete

Not always. This is an invasive species, obviously taking a toll (probably not yet known how bad) on native species. I don’t fear coyotes, coon, muskrats, mink, crows, pigeons but I do understand the impacts if their numbers are not kept in check.