Snake hunters capture largest python in Florida Everglades by attaching tracking device to ‘boyfriend’
- Researchers found the enormous reptile by using male pythons fitted with radio transmitters, allowing them to track the male and locate breeding female
- The Burmese python is considered an invasive species since it first appeared in the area in the 1980s
Snake hunters have captured what they say is the largest python ever found in the swamps of the Florida Everglades: a pregnant female more than 5.2 metres long (17 feet) and weighing 63.5kg (140 pounds).
The team from the Big Cypress National Preserve posted news of their record-setting catch in a Facebook post that also noted the giant reptile was carrying 73 eggs.
Environmentalists have been struggling to find ways to eradicate Burmese pythons, a non-native species, from the 1.5 million acre wilderness since the 1980s, when some were released into the wild as overgrown pets.
Others escaped from a breeding facility wrecked by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Populations of raccoons, opossums and bobcats have fallen by between 88 per cent and 99 per cent as the python population has exploded, studies have shown, while several species of rabbits and foxes have all but disappeared.
