FLORIDA, USA — The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world, averaging between 6 and 9 feet long, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Now imagine a python twice the size — 17 feet long and 177 pounds — sitting right in front of you.
Contractors working for the state caught a massive Burmese python in March. It is recorded as the heaviest snake ever caught in the FWC python removal program's history.
Kurt Cox of the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in the Everglades caught the python on March 29. It is the fourth heaviest and 22nd longest Burmese python FWC has on record, according to the agency.
Shockingly, this python has nothing on the heaviest python ever recorded in the state, which weighed 215 pounds and ran nearly 18 feet long when the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples caught it in 2021.
Burmese pythons are a non-native species of the state, pinned as invasive by FWC and added to Florida’s prohibited species list. These types of species, most commonly found in and around the Everglades, are considered invasive because of their impact on native wildlife. They can “be humanely killed on private property with landowner permission” and it is illegal in Florida to have one as a pet. They are not protected under Florida law except by anti-cruelty law.
