Giant Python on the Loose Near Snell Isle

Two people paddling in their canoe off Snell Isle, near the the Renaissance Vinoy Golf Club, spotted a large Burmese python over the Memorial Day weekend.

A cell phone photo Nancy Davis and her son took of the Burmese python is creating a stir among neighbors, WTSP Channel 10 reports. The eight to 12-foot long snake was swimming through the mangroves of Coffee Pot Bayou.

Since the sighting, wildlife officials have confirmed that the giant snake is a Burmese python, considered an invasive specie with few natural predators, allowing them to proliferate.

The state recently hosted a hunt of pythons in the Everglades, hoping to cull the number of snakes devouring native wildlife and growing to enormous sizes. But a Burmese python off Snell Isle? Now that's rare.

Pets are at risk, as are the native wildlife in the neighborhood, including raccoons and birds. Neighbors say they hope the snake is not destroyed but moved to a habitat more suitable. But first it will need to be caught.

Anyone who thinks that he or she spotted the Burmese python is asked to contact the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission's exotic species hotline:  1-888-483-4681. 

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