Record-Breaking 18-Foot Burmese Python Captured In Florida

COLLIER COUNTY, FL — Biologists captured the largest Burmese python ever recorded in Florida, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced Wednesday.

The giant female snake weighed 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.

"This female is the largest snake captured by mass, by weight in the state of Florida. Definitely the largest on our project by far and a very impressive animal," Ian Bartoszek, the wildlife biologist and environmental science project manager for the conservancy's program, said in a news conference.

Bartoszek's team recently tracked the python slithering through the Picayune Strand State Forest in Naples.

"We do that [tracking] by implanting radio transmitters inside of our pythons, and then we follow them around the landscape," Bartoszek said. "The male pythons, which we refer to as scout snakes, lead us to these large, reproductively active female pythons."

It was Deon, one of the team's scout snakes, that led them to the giant female python.

"We were following [Deon] using an antenna. We were very close to him, when we heard kind of a rustle a little bit off into the brush. And we look over and see a snake obviously significantly larger than ours," Ian Easterling, a biologist with the conservancy, said.

Capturing the large python, however, was no easy task, Easterling said. His team wrestled with the python for about 20 minutes while trying to restrain its head to prevent it from biting anyone.

"She put up a pretty good fight. She was very strong, swinging her body around. She took her tail, seemed to like ball it up in a fist and swung at Kyle [an intern]. He was able to dodge it, but I looked right into it, and she hit me square in the nose," Easterling said.

Ultimately, Easterling's team won the battle against the snake, and she was humanely euthanized and brought to a lab. During a necropsy, the team said they located the remains of a white-tailed dear inside the snake.

"These are big-game hunters, as you’d imagine for this size. They are capable of taking down some considerably large prey," Bartoszek said.

The team also discovered that the snake was carrying 122 eggs — the largest egg count ever found inside a female python, they said.

"An average clutch of eggs is around 43," Bartoszek said.

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The Conservancy of Southwest Florida said it's unclear exactly how old the snake was since its growth is determined by what it consumes.

"The more they eat, the bigger they get. We would probably suggest that this snake is over 15-20 years old," Easterling said.

Wildlife experts said female pythons were generally larger than their male counterparts. In 2016, the conservancy captured the largest male python snake on record. It weighed 140 pounds and was nearly 16 feet long.

"We didn’t know male snakes got that big, so it’s possible for them to get that big, but for the most part, they are significantly smaller," Easterling said.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has been tracking invasive Burmese pythons for the last 10 years, learning about their behaviors to find more effective ways to remove them from Florida's ecosystem.

"We have a lot of respect for these animals. It’s a beautiful creature. They are here at no fault of their own. That’s why for us, it’s humane euthanasia and how much science we can get from this animal," Bartoszek said.

News Conference: Most massive Burmese python ever caught in Florida:

Burmese pythons are found primarily in and around the Everglades ecosystem in south Florida, where the snake represents a threat to native wildlife, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conseravation Commission.

To help promote the removal of the big snakes, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the 2022 Florida Python Challenge at a news conference last week in Miami.

In Florida, more than 16,000 Burmese pythons have been removed since 2000. But just how many exist in Florida is unknown, according to Bartoszek.

"There isn’t a reliable population estimate out there. That’s the $10 million question," he said.

But could there be even bigger snakes out there slithering around in south Florida? If you ask Bartoszek, the answer is "yes."

"There’s got to be a larger snake out there in the Everglades. There’s always a bigger snake. We just haven’t found it yet," he said.