Scientists just caught the largest python ever to be removed from Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida. Josh King has the details.
In the Florida Everglades, a team of invasive species researchers got more than it bargained for – a 17-foot-long python, plus 73 developing python eggs.
On Friday, Big Cypress National Preserve announced in a post to Facebook that its team of researchers had discovered the largest python ever to be removed from the swamp.
The pregnant female weighed 140 pounds, though presumably some of that was egg weight.
They found the record-breaking python using a new, and intuitive, tracking method — tagging male pythons and following them on their quest for female mates.
The python was captured and killed, according to The Washington Post. Preserve officials explained that they don’t kill the pythons because they are snakes; they kill them because they are an invasive species.
“They are being humanely euthanized because they are having a huge, negative impact on native animals such as deer, wading birds, and even Florida panthers by taking away food from the endangered native Panther,” preserve officials wrote. “Rescues are already over-crowded with unwanted pet snakes. It is not fun in any way to euthanize these creatures, but it is done to protect the many native species that do live in Big Cypress National Preserve.”
Video by Veuer/Josh King
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