Pennsylvania native wrestles second heaviest python ever killed in Florida
EVERGLADES CITY, Fl. (KDKA) -- A Pennsylvania native was one of five men who fought the second heaviest python caught in Florida.
State College native Carter Gavlock now lives in Florida where he works as a representative for multiple fishing companies, CBS affiliate WTAJ reported.
Last Friday, he was driving around looking for snakes with his friends Holden Hunter and Trey Barber when they saw what they first thought was a log on the road. It turned out to be a 17-foot-2-inch long python, weighing 198 pounds.
"We were joking about finding a 12-foot snake that night," Gavlock told WTAJ. "I don't think any of us were prepared necessarily mentally because it's 17-foot-2. It was just, I think we were all kind of in awe. I know I hopped out of the truck and I think I was out of the truck before it stopped."
Enlisting the help of a father and son who were driving by, they wrestled the snake for about an hour before they could put it down properly, WTAJ reported. It's the second heaviest snake ever killed in Florida.
Gavlock said they plan to get the python mounted and they'll continue hunting the invasive species. Pythons were brought from Southeast Asia to Florida in the 1970s through the pet trade, CBS News reported. The invasive predators quickly spread throughout the Everglades ecosystem and are thought to be responsible for a 90% decline in the native mammal population.
"In turn, it helps out the environment by taking these snakes out of the wild," Gavlock explained to WTAJ. "You know they are eating the deer, the possums, the bobcats. With them eating lots of those animals it takes away a lot of prey items for the Florida panthers that are already kind of in trouble."
