Monster Python Eats Last Meal

Late last year, a team from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida captured and killed one of the thousands (or more) of the Burmese pythons plaguing the Everglades. This one, a female packed with 122 egg follicles, was a whopper: nearly 18 feet long and weighing 215 pounds.

The big snake, the largest found so far in Florida, was autopsied, skinned, and boned. Its last meal was an entire whitetail deer, one of the 73 species of animals that have fallen victim to the invasive snake, which has been pillaging the Everglades for decades. 

The Burmese python, native to Southeast Asia, was introduced here in the 1970s, probably an escapee from an exotic-pet owner. With no natural predators it treats the Everglades as an all-you-can-eat buffet, gobbling up food that would otherwise feed indigenous carnivores, such as the bobcat.

The biologists said they wrestled with the ginormous female for 20 minutes before she was “subdued” at last. They found her by using a “scout snake,” a male outfitted with a tracking device. Males will seek out females during the mating season, and this male – named Loki – sought and found this mother of all serpents.

In August the state will hold its ninth annual “Python Challenge,” which allows hunters to stalk and kill the invasive species over the course of a week and a half. Last year the event culled 223 snakes from the area, but that barely puts a dent in the population.

Since 2000, Florida Fish & Wildlife has killed or removed more than 15,000 pythons from the Everglades, but no one knows how many there are slithering through the swamps.

 Photo credit: National Geographic