Female Python 17 feet long, longer than a one-storey building, taken in the United States

Florida researchers using a new approach to combat a destructive invasion by huge pythons have captured one of the largest specimens of all time, a 17-foot-long specimen (5.2 meters) big enough to eat a deer, they said.

The female snake is longer than a single storey building is high and weighs 64 pounds.

It's one of the biggest pythons ever caught in South Florida, according to an article posted on the Big Cypress National Reserve's Facebook page.

The researchers discovered the huge reptile using male pythons equipped with radio transmitters, allowing them to track the male and locate the breeding females, according to the post.

"The team not only removes invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develops new removal tools, and learns how pythons use the pool," Park said.

It has been discovered that the 17 foot foot contains 73 developing eggs. Reptiles do not have natural predators in Florida and multiply rapidly, representing "a significant threat to native wildlife," the researchers said.

Snakes can decimate native wildlife, killing small animals such as rabbits, birds and opossums, and even eating creatures as large as adult alligators and deer.

The Burmese python has been considered an invasive species since its appearance in the 1980s.

With between 30,000 and 300,000 pythons currently in South Florida, the US Department of the Interior has banned their import in 2012.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has sponsored hunting programs for reptiles.

But such efforts have failed to slow their spread and the commission in 2017 held hearings around the state to look for creative ideas to contain the monstrous creatures.

Among the ideas that have emerged are the introduction of Australian snake-killer terrier dogs, barbed wire around trees to protect birds, or using drones equipped with infrared sensors for aerial surveillance.

Another idea – the introduction of the Mongoose, renowned in Asia for its ability to kill cobras – came from a Victoria Olson of Fort Lauderdale.

"They've managed to eradicate snakes in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and they can actually kill a python," she said, according to Fort Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

Pythons are not known to be particularly intelligent. Some having choked to death with golf balls that they thought were eggs, one man suggested creating hundreds of fake eggs.

When asked about such ideas, a spokeswoman for the state's wildlife diplomatically indicated that the public's contribution was greatly appreciated.

But, she says to Sun-Sentinel, "we want to give each suggestion the time it deserves for its evaluation."

(With the exception of the title, this story was not changed by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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