The large Burmese python ever run across in Florida has been detect , assess over 5 measure ( almost 18 feet ) from tail to snout and weighing a suppress 97 kilograms ( 215 pounds ) , as reported byNational Geographic .
Burmese python ( Python bivittatus ) have made themselves at home plate in the loopy swamps of south Florida . However , as their name suggests , this is an incursive metal money whose aboriginal home is across the world in Southeast Asia .
It ’s believed the specie were introduced to Florida in the seventies , likely from the exotic pet patronage . The population was then boost in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew wrecked a serpent breeding facility , releasing an nameless number of python into the natural state .
Researcher Ian Bartoszek sifts through dozens of proto-eggs while performing a necropsy on the female Burmese python. The team counted 122 of these “follicles,” another record-breaking tally. Photograph by Maggie Steber, National Geographic
In recent long time , freak - sized pythons tap 5.2 meters ( 17 feet)have been documentedin and around Florida ’s Everglades , but this discovery is said to be a record - breaker . Back in 2020 , two Florida hunterscaptured a Burmese pythonthat assess 5.7 meters ( 18.75 feet ) , but that individual weigh substantially less at 47.2 - kilograms ( 104 - British pound sterling )
In fact , it appear to be the largest ever example of a Burmese python ever check outside of its lifelike range in Southeast Asia .
The new record - breakers was discovered when a squad of Conservancy of Southwest Florida track down the vast female python with the assistance of a male tagged up to a GPS tracking system .
environmentalist often apply this method to cut through down orotund females , who tend to be very reproductively active , in a bid to control this incursive specie . Once the giant female person was located , it was ( carefully ) put in a tub and taken back to the lab where it was chemically euthanized under veterinary supervision . When biologists were brought to see the specimen , they could hardly think their eyes .
“ When he opened the freezer , ” Kristen Hart , an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Wetland and Aquatic Research Center and a cooperator with the conservancy squad , toldNational Geographic . “ I unquestionably had a jaw - dropping second . ”
Inside the python was just as intriguing for the scientist . Here , they found a record of 122 egg " follicles , " proto - egg of the python that have the potential to grow into eggs once fertilized . Her guts also hold in the fur , hoof , and other remnants of an grownup white - tailed deer , which was potential the ophidian ’s last meal .
As magnificent as the species may be , they cause real problem for local wildlife since they raven upon a variety of mammals , raspberry , and even gator , induce havoc to local food chains and the ecosystem . No one has any estimation how many Burmese Python are in Florida , but state wildlife authorities have killed or removed over 15,000 pythons since 2000 .
This record - break discovery go to show how significant conservationists in Florida feel it is to keep control of this colossal , but very dangerous , species .
“ These pythons have the power to completely alter the ecosystem , and I would say they likely already have , ” said Hart .
For more on this history , chew the fat : natgeo.com
