Mother Of All Snakes Found In Florida's Big Cypress Park

MIAMI, FL — Researchers in South Florida have captured the mother of all snakes at Big Cypress National Preserve, a 17-foot Burmese python that tipped the scales at a whopping 140 pounds.

"She is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve — and she was caught because of research and a new approach to finding pythons," researchers declared on the Big Cypress Facebook page.

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The invasive Burmese python population has been wreaking havoc on the Florida ecosystem for years as the aggressive snakes continue to turn up in unusual places and reproduce at an astounding rate. The female snake captured at Big Cypress was carrying 73 developing eggs.

She was caught in a sort of snake honey trap, where researchers attached radio transmitters to male snakes and set them free to do, well — what came naturally.

"Using male pythons with radio transmitters allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females," said researchers. "The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develop new removal tools and learn how the pythons are using the preserve."

To understand how destructive the snakes have been, a 2015 University of Florida study released 95 adult marsh rabbits in areas known to harbor pythons. Within 11 months of their release in the Everglades, the study found that pythons accounted for 77 percent of the rabbit deaths.

Big Cypress spokeswoman Rita Garcia told Patch that the researchers were part of a U.S. Geological Survey team that is attempting to find better methods of locating and removing pythons from the preserve.

"A few weeks prior to the 17-foot python, the record had been set by the capture of a 15-foot, 11-inch female python," Garcia said.

Last year, the South Florida Water Management District celebrated the 1,000 Burmese Python captured in the Florida Everglades under the Python Elimination Program. The program pays snake hunters for each snake captured based on size and whether they are carrying eggs.

Researchers said they have successfully removed several breeding female snakes from Big Cypress in recent months using the radio technology.

"All of the python work at Big Cypress is focused on controlling this invasive species, which poses significant threats to native wildlife," researchers added.