18-Foot Python Captured in Florida Everglades

Pythons present a low risk to visitors to the Florida Everglades, according to officials, but you'd probably still want to steer clear of this mammoth Burmese python recently captured by University of Florida researchers.

Caught along a popular wildlife-watching trail in Everglades National Park, the snake was a female measuring 18 feet, 3 inches, and weighing 133 pounds.

According to state wildlife officials, the longest python ever caught in Florida was 18 feet, 8 inches long.

Pythons are not native to Florida, where scientists say the snakes are devouring local wildlife. According to researchers, a python that's 18 feet long is capable of ingesting large prey such as deer or alligators. First introduced as escaped pets, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there are now tens of thousands of Burmese pythons populating the Everglades.

Click the Link to see the Pixs!....Awesome!!

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/18-foot-python-captured-florida-everglades-n400731?cid=sm_fb

Florida python hunt will return to Everglades in 2016

MIAMI (AP) — Florida is bringing back a public hunt for invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission plans to hold the next "Python Challenge" early next year. Registration opens in October.

About 1,600 people participated in 2013 during the first monthlong python hunt on state lands. Most of the 68 pythons collected were caught by experienced hunters.

Tens of thousands of pythons may be slithering through the Everglades, and the hunt illustrated how difficult they are to find. Kristen Sommers of the wildlife commission's exotic species coordination section says only about 200 pythons are caught in an average year.

Sommers says the next Python Challenge will increase training for the public to identify the invasive snakes, so that they also can report python sightings year round.

http://www.news-press.com/story/lif...t-will-return-to-everglades-in-2016/25822823/

they becoming real threat to your eco system so many idiots let them go when they realise these snakes mean buisness

Imports of these animals and poisonous ones not of a given area should be banned, period. How about that man who was found in his car and died in the hospital in Austin TX from a cobra strike? They found the dead cobra in the area, AND another one was found in Houston.

deafdrummer said:

Imports of these animals and poisonous ones not of a given area should be banned, period. How about that man who was found in his car and died in the hospital in Austin TX from a cobra strike? They found the dead cobra in the area, AND another one was found in Houston.

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Its been banned for years, yet people still find way to smuggling them, just like drug smuggling. Many not realize our borders isnt as secured as they think they are. There are plenty of borders where one can simply barge across without seeing US custom.