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The biggest Burmese python ever caught in Florida 17
feet, 7 inches (5.18 metres) long and 164 1/2 pounds (74.4 kilograms)
was found in Everglades National Park, the University of Florida
announced Monday.
The snake was pregnant with 87 eggs, also said to be a record.
Scientists said the python's stats show just how pervasive the invasive
snakes, which are native to Southeast Asia, have become in South
Florida.
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"It means these snakes are surviving a long time in the wild," said
Kenneth Krysko, a snake expert at the Florida Museum of Natural History,
where the euthanized snake was brought. "'There's nothing stopping them
and the native wildlife are in trouble."
The python had feathers in its stomach that scientists plan to use to
identify the types of wildlife it was eating.
"A 17 1/2-foot snake could eat anything it wants," Krysko said.
Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons are believed to be living in the
Everglades, where they thrive in the warm, humid climate. While many
were apparently released by their owners, others may have escaped from
pet shops during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and have been reproducing ever
since.
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The snakes kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it. They
have been known to swallow animals as large as deer and alligators.
Authorities have taken repeated steps to try and reduce the python
problem, banning their importation and allowing them to be hunted. But
those efforts have done little to reduce the population.
In and around Everglades National Park alone, some 1,825 Burmese pythons
were found between 2000 and 2011.
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Rob Robins, a biologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said
the snakes are very hard to catch, and that since they have established
themselves in the Everglades, they will be virtually impossible to
eradicate.
"I think you're going to see more and more big snakes like this caught,"
he said.
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