Hunters capture Florida's biggest python
At first they thought the scales were broken. But a massive Burmese python shows what Florida native species are up against.
At first the Florida hunters thought the scale was broken. The female python weighed in at a record-breaking 215 pounds—and was 17.7 feet long. It was the heaviest Burmese python found outside its natural range, and it took three people to haul it (pictured above).
The capture, using male “scout” snakes with surgically installed GPS markers, shows the persistence of Florida’s Burmese python problem. The reclusive apex predator from southeast Asia has exploded in the wild since being introduced to Florida in the late 1970s, munching through native species.
The giant snake was weighed down carrying 122 unfertilized follicle eggs (see dozens of them below)—proof that she could have hatched a whole slithering village. She also carried evidence of eating a white-tailed deer, prime food for bobcats and endangered Florida panthers.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
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