© Provided by Local News RSS EN-USA team of four researchers stood apart from one another, arms outstretched, clutching a giant python, and it takes a wide-angle lens just to capture the length of the beast they found in Big Cypress National Preserve in Floridas Everglades.
The group posted the image to the Big Cypress Facebook page Friday and are calling the catch a record.
The female python was over 17 feet long, weighed 140 pounds, and contained 73 developing eggs. That would make her longer, end-to-end, than a one-story building or a five-meter diving platform.
She is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve and she was caught because of research and a new approach to finding pythons, the environmental group said.
Radio transmitting pythons
The researchers caught this behemoth by using male pythons equipped with radio transmitters, which, they say, allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females.
The goal is to remove the invasive snakes and to also collect data for research that will help Big Cypress develop new removal tools and learn the pythons habits.
All of the python work at Big Cypress is focused on controlling this invasive species, which poses significant threats to native wildlife, the group said on its Facebook post.
Previous python record
In December 2017, Florida snake hunters made a then-record setting catch in the Everglades when python hunter Jason Leon captured a 17-foot Burmese python at Big Cypress. The South Florida Water Management District said that female measured 17 feet, 1 inch long and weighed 132 pounds.
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