Record 164-pound, 17.5-foot python caught in Florida

On Aug. 10, 2012, researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus examine the internal anatomy of the largest Burmese python found in Florida to date. / University of Florida photo by Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History

(CBS/AP) WEST PALM BEACH, Florida - Scientists say they've caught the biggest Burmese python ever recorded in Florida.

The python weighed in at 164.5 pounds and measured 17 feet, 7 inches long. It was pregnant with 87 eggs.

"This thing is monstrous, it's about a foot wide," said Florida Museum herpetology collection manager Kenneth Krysko, in a press release. "It means these snakes are surviving a long time in the wild, there's nothing stopping them and the native wildlife are in trouble."

The snakes are native to Southeast Asia but have established a population of tens of thousands in the Everglades, where the latest find was recorded Friday.

It was euthanized and is being studied at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Authorities have taken steps to try and reduce the python problem in the Everglades, banning their importation and allowing them to be hunted. But those efforts have done little to reduce the population. Their presence in South Florida is blamed, in part, by the release of snakes that people kept as pets.

"They were here 25 years ago, but in very low numbers and it was difficult to find one because of their cryptic behavior," Krysko said in the release. "Now, you can go out to the Everglades nearly any day of the week and find a Burmese python. We've found 14 in a single day."

[lloydbest1]

Some have said that a breeding facility destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 released large numbers of pythons as well as other exotic species. Many homes who had pythons as pets were also destroyed. Very few of these snakes perished in the storm and with few or no preditors grew rapidly in numbers.

Subsequent hard freezes have done nothing to reduce their numbers and estimates of 10000 or more in the everglades alone are not out of line.

Maximum recorded length is 19 feet 10 inches (Wikipedia - and tho' that can be taken with a grain of salt, the number isn't far off) but given the superabundance of prey here who have no experience with pythons, a 17+ footer is no surprise. Even the largest and fattest will not attack adult humans and even children down to about age 6 or so are probably safe (shoulders are too wide to get the mouth around), but there are plenty of cats, dogs, deer, mullet and small gators out there to feast on.......

[redbeachvn]

Promote the meat as organic, low cholesterol and start exporting the meat to China. Have number of movie stars show up wearing Burmese Python shoes and carrying python handbags. They would create a huge demand for the skin.

[dcspsu]

I find it amusing that we are actually discussing steps we can take to control nature's balance. Nature is constantly adjusting its equilibrium. Our only concern should be trying to avoid humans being adjusted out the the equation.

[js555554]

Guess I never understood in the first place the desire to have a pet that first will never be your friend. Next, could in time eat you. There are a couple of things that could easily be done. Fist is to promote python skin products. Shoes, boots, wallets, etc. Open them up for year round hunting with no limit. Or, I have some hunter friends in South Louisiana and Mississippi they could bring over. But with these guys you have to work things a little differently. Tell them pythons are good eating. There is a limit of 1 tag per season per hunter, and the season is closed. The python population in the Everglades will be in trouble shortly there after.

[phwtb100]

Send PETA in to capture... I mean... SAVE them! We could rid ourselves of two huge problems all at the same time.

[gabe97]

you are just an idiot!

[sepa2]

Small problem for safeguarding individual rights

[democracy8]

What?

[varigdc10]

And the answer is, release a bunch of Amazonian Anacondas, let them reproduce, and they will cancel each other out be eating each other, nothing scientific here, just Darwinism at work.

[Well_You_Aint_Me]

Yep, nothing like creating another problem to solve the one already present.

I prefer to allow the boot and shoe manufacturers to go out there and collect. Python boots/shoes are really nice.

[micmac666]

That would be another "can of worms", so to speak.

[AnnieDanny]

Let them eat Asian Prawns, and save both ecosystems.

[BWB2020]

"...They were here 25 years ago, but in very low numbers and it was difficult to find one because of their cryptic behavior," Krysko said in the release..."

Nothing at all cryptic about them, they spend the days sleeping high up in a leafy, shady tree, and come down shortly after sunset to hunt.

In Bali, where I spend most of my time, I have caught several small ones, around 6-8 feet in length. I have also saved some from being eaten by the people who catch them on their property. I usually take them to the mangrove near where I live, and release them.

They usually avoid things they consider too big to eat, and will retreat rather than attack, unless they feel trapped. Then they will bite, and as their teeth are curved backwards, they can rip flesh, but they are not poisonous.

[micmac666]

Exotic pet ownership is, by its definition, "irresponsible", and only impresses like-minded losers.