The Everglades is home to a growing population of the invasive Southeast Asian pythons, many of which have either escaped into or been dumped into the wild.
Sometimes adopted as a pet, the Burmese python is one of nine species of constrictor snakes—and about a million individual constrictors—that have been imported into the United States over the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Florida’s previous biggest-snake record-holder was a 16.8-foot-long (5.12-meter-long) Burmese python. Finding a bigger one “is a great indication that conditions are really perfect for them,” said J.D. Willson, a biologist and snake expert at the University of Arkansas.
Burmese pythons, he said, grow biggest where there’s plentiful food—in captivity, they can reach lengths of up to 20 feet (6 meters).
Now, a new champion has arisen… A 5.4-meter-long (17.7-foot) Burmese python, the biggest snake ever found in the southeastern U.S. state, breaks U.S. state’s record for length and egg count.
A necropsy on the euthanized python revealed she was carrying 87 eggs—also a state record for the species, a University of Florida team announced Monday.
To biologist Cheryl Millett, those 87 eggs are “just more evidence that they are pretty much established—they’re breeding in the Everglades,” she said.
A Burmese python as big as the new titleholder “should be able to eat any native animal in South Florida”—even Florida panthers, Willson said. And in fact, recent study showed that Burmese pythons are preying on a wide range of native species, some of which happen to be in decline.
Captured in Everglades National Park, the “monstrous” constrictor will eventually be displayed at the Florida Museum of Natural History, according to the university.
N.
Photograph by Kristen Grace, FMNH/AFP/Getty Images
Via: NatGeo
