Record-breaking python captured in Florida

June 27, 2022

OnJune 22, 2022, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida revealed they had captured a 215-pound (98-kilo) female Burmese python in Everglades National Park. Measuring 18 feet long (5 meters), it is the heaviest Burmese python ever caught in the state.

The previous record-holder was a 185-pound (84-kilo) specimen captured in Naples, Florida, in 2021.

Further examination of the euthanized snake revealed she was carrying 122 developing eggs — the most ever found in a female python during a breeding cycle. The biologists also found evidence of an adult white-tailed deer inside the snake’s stomach. The deer are an important food source for the critically endangered Florida panthers that call the Everglades home.

“The removal of female pythons plays a critical role in disrupting the breeding cycle of these apex predators that are wreaking havoc on the Everglades ecosystem and taking food sources from other native species,” said Ian Bartoszek, the Conservancy’s environmental science project manager.

“This is the wildlife issue of our time for southern

Florida.”