Biologists catch record-breaking 215-pound Burmese python in Florida Everglades

• Conservancy biologists in Florida caught an almost 18-foot-long, 215-pound Burmese python.
• The invasive snake is the biggest Burmese python ever found in state’s Everglades.
• The python was caught in December, but wasn’t made public until this week – when National Geographic published an exclusive story about the program.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Conservancy biologists caught the biggest Burmese python ever found in Florida’s Everglades: an almost 18-foot-long, 215-pound female loaded with 122 eggs.

The record-breaking invasive snake was deep in the scrub of Picayune Strand State Forest in Florida’s Collier County, where a radio-equipped male “scout” snake named Dion led researchers to her.

Though scientists prefer not to make guesses, wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek says there’s a good chance the massive matriarch might well be one of the original pet snakes released into the wild decades ago.

In recent years, pythons have gone off like a bomb in the Everglades, devastating populations of native mammals including rabbits, opossum and white-tailed deer – creatures that should feed the endangered Florida panthers instead of introduced Asian reptiles.

So successfully have the pythons adapted to their new niche, says Bartoszek, environmental science project manager for the Conservancy, that, “We may have more Burmese pythons in south Florida than in southeast Asia,” where numbers are dwindling as habitat disappears.

Invasive pythons slither north in Everglades:May mean snake ‘population is expanding’ in Florida   

Removing them will help the whole system return to health, says Conservancy of Southwest Florida CEO Rob Moher. “We’re spending $16 billion to restore the Everglades – it’s one of the most ambitious restoration projects in the history of the world and it’s on our doorstep here (and) you have this” he says, gesturing to the gigantic python spread on a lab table for a group of journalists, “in the middle of the western Everglades.”

“So, is there a future where the western Everglades is silent? Imagine going out and there’s no wildlife, no bird life because this apex predator is just devouring what is out there.”

The snake on the table had been dead more than six months. Though she was bagged last December, National Geographic was writing an exclusive story about the program that wasn’t published until Tuesday, so scientists “weren’t allowed to share anything until it released,” said Conservancy spokeswoman Katy Hennig.

The python was euthanized shortly after capture, though Hennig would not say how – only that the technique was humane and veterinarian-approved.

Her carcass will be used for science, with tissue samples going to various institutions – “Sky’s the limit on what we can do with the genetics,” Bartoszek said – and her skeleton likely used as a teaching tool.

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