There is “no other Everglades in the world,” said Bartoszek. Florida state authorities have taken measures to minimize the population, like by hosting an annual “Python Challenge” to see who can remove and kill the most pythons. As an invasive species, the pythons threaten Florida’s native fauna, Bartoszek tells CNN. They discovered she broke another record: she had the largest number of eggs ever found, with 122 developing eggs in her abdomen.īurmese pythons are indigenous to southeast Asia, where they are considered vulnerable to extinction due to overhunting.īut renegade snakes from the pet trade, who either escaped or were released into the wild, have established a population in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. Pythons might become a new menu item in Florida if scientists can confirm they're safe to eatīut it wasn’t until several months later, on April 28, that biologists had a chance to perform a necropsy on the snake. There was “collective disbelief” when they realized she was a whopping 215 pounds, breaking the previous record of 185 pounds for a Burmese python captured in Florida. Ian Bartoszek, a project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, biologist Ian Easterling and intern Kyle Findley caught and euthanized the huge female python before hauling her back to their field truck last December.īartoszek says that they didn’t realize just how large the snake was until they weighed her at the lab. So by following a breeding male like Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.
Males are attracted to the largest females, according to the conservancy. The huge reptile was captured by the conservancy as part of its invasive Burmese python research program.īiologists found the female by tracking a male “scout snake” named Dionysus with a radio transmitter. The python is the heaviest ever captured in the state, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced on Wednesday. She’s massive, invasive and covered in scales: A record breaking 215-pound, 18-foot-long Burmese python has been captured in Florida.
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