Huge python caught in the Florida Nature Reserve

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Scientists caught in the Florida Everglades a female python over 17 feet long, weighing 140 pounds and containing 73 developing eggs.

The picture with the Facebook post says it all.

He shows a team of four researchers, separated from each other, holding the gigantic reptile.

Although pythons of all sizes have been found in the Everglades, most of them are between 6 and 10 feet long. The largest was over 18 feet long and weighed over 100 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Yet this last discovery is impressive. Big Cypress Rangers recognize that research and new tracking technology make this possible.

"The use of male pythons with radio transmitters allows the team to track the male to locate the breeding females," their statement said. "The team not only removes invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develops new removal tools, and learns how pythons use the pool."

The Burmese python is native to Southeast Asia, but in recent decades, large snakes have become a rampant threat in Florida. The Everglades are a vast region with a tropical climate conducive to the development of pythons.

State wildlife officials estimate that there are 100,000 pythons living in the vast swamps outside of Miami. Snakes pose a significant threat to native wildlife.

To control their population, Florida even organizes competitions encouraging hunters to withdraw as many as possible.

Florida ecologists sometimes use radio telemetry to track Burmese pythons.
Some 1,600 people registered for the inaugural python challenge in 2013, organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The researchers found only 68 snakes.
In 2017, 25 hunters were paid for python euthanasia as part of a $ 175,000 pilot program by the South Florida Water Management District.

Pythons began to appear in the Everglades in the 1980s, probably abandoned by animal owners when snakes became too big to handle. Some pet pythons may also have escaped from a breeding facility destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

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