Scientists just captured a record 17-foot-long python in Florida

[IronLionZion]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/07/us/florida-huge-python-captured-trnd/index.html



(CNN)The Burmese python is one of the largest snakes in the world. But even by python standards, this one was colossal.

Scientists caught a female python in the Florida Everglades that was more than 17 feet long, weighed 140 pounds and contained 73 developing eggs.

The snake is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve, a 729,000-acre expanse of swampland west of Miami in South Florida, according to a statement Friday on the preserve's Facebook page.

The picture with the Facebook post tells it all.
It shows a team of four researchers, standing apart from one another, holding up the gigantic reptile.

While pythons of all sizes have been found in the Everglades, most of them are between 6 and 10 feet long. The largest one was over 18 feet long and weighed more than 100 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Still, this latest find is impressive. Big Cypress' rangers credit research and new tracking technology with making it possible.
"Using male pythons with radio transmitters allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females," their statement says. "The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develops new removal tools and learns how the pythons are using the Preserve."

The Burmese python is native to Southeast Asia, but in recent decades the big snakes have become a slithering menace in Florida. The Everglades is a vast area with a tropical climate perfect for pythons to hide and thrive.

State wildlife officials estimate there are as many as 100,000 pythons living in the vast swamps outside Miami. The snakes pose significant threats to native wildlife.

There's an even more dangerous python over at Mar-A-Lago that needs to be caught.

[stonecutter357]

1. Florida Officals: Don't Eat Python Meat !

Burmese pythons in the Everglades contain some of the highest levels of mercury found in a living creature.
https://www.outsideonline.com/1794941/florida-officals-dont-eat-python-meat

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. usually the source is whatever the animals are eating

which brings up more questions....why is there so much mercury in the swamp, and how contaminated are other critters.

[Submariner]

6. The pythons are eating through the Everglades quickly

About 20 years ago critters like rabbits, foxes, opossums, raccoons, and white-tailed deer would show up regularly as road kill around the Everglades road systems.

I read recently that those mammals are rarely found as road kill anymore, because they are being consumed at a high rate by the pythons.

[lostnfound]

2. Florida of my youth was such an awesome place

Now, it’s got pythons, Republicans, too many people, and Mar a Lago.

[lame54]

3. Was it in Florida Man's double wide?

[NurseJackie]

8. I live in a double wide.

[lame54]

10. I did too

[NurseJackie]

12. So if someone once lived in a "double wide" they get a free pass to ridicule others who still do?

Well, this is our home. It's humble and it's ours. It's our little plot of land. We love our home and our neighbors too. It's not a temporary stopping point on the way to something better. We don't feel trapped here. We don't feel out of place. We're not here because we fell on hard times. This is where we live and probably where we'll die. It's what we can afford. We're not rich, but we know how to live comfortably within our means. We're also not stupid and we're not classless. Not everyone who lives in a mobile home is a red-hat MAGA idiot. We're not rednecks or hillbillies or bumpkins. We're in the LOW end of whatever anyone imagines middle class to be. I'm sick to death of all the subtle and not-so-subtle backhanded swipes at trailer dwellers, trailer parks and "double-wides".

[Tipperary]

15. Thank you. Just yesterday I saw du congratulating AOC for speaking up for bartenders, etc.

But sad to say, right here I have seen posters insult people who live in trailers, people who work minimum wage, people who live in rural areas...you name it - plenty of snobs right here on good old du.

[Codeine]

16. Thank you.

I grew up in trailers — single wide, double wide, even a few years in a 22’ camp trailer. It’s just a home like any other, these days just as well-constructed and properly-insulated as any stick-built home.

Such a tired and facile stereotype.

[Trailrider1951]

19. A great big THANK YOU for this

I live in a single wide manufactured home. It's what I could afford after I left Texas for the Seattle-Tacoma area. I bought a fixer-upper in a retirement community for 1/2 of what I paid for my car, and a lot rent of 1/2 of what I would pay for a much smaller apartment here in Washington state. So now I have a home and a hobby LOL, with my slow-motion remodel. People who make stereotypical judgments of other people based on their living arrangements are, frankly, showing their ignorance. Manufactured housing can be a very nice way of living debt-free. Follow this link for the truth on manufactured homes:

https://mobilehomeliving.org/

[Hassin Bin Sober]

21. Oh.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. " In 2017, 25 hunters were paid to euthanize pythons "

Euthanize: put (a living being, especially a dog or cat) to death humanely.

not sure euthanize is the word they should have used.

[CCExile]

7. It doen't look captured, it looks dead.

[Kurt V.]

9. my sister's ex had a burmese. very lovable, very needy for attention

[backtoblue]

20. The opposite of how I like my pythons!

I bet it just wanted to squeeze a hug right outta ya!


Nope. I like my snakes shy, hidden, and not particularly affectionate.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. scariest part? "contained 73 developing eggs".

[Haggis for Breakfast]

13. You can trace all of this back to Hurricane Andrew (1992)

Thousands of "pet" snakes, spiders are other terrarium type creatures were released into the streets when the hurricane destroyed south Florida. They naturally gravitated into the Everglades and swampy areas around. Without natural predators, they proliferated at an exponentially-devastating rate. In many areas, birds, smaller reptiles/amphibians have vanished.

Florida will never recover.

[ToxMarz]

14. The pythons have been known to be inhabiting the Everglades since the 1980's

Many have released their pet snakes there when they got too large or just unwanted. I'm sure some may have gotten loose from Andrew, but it is not "THE" reason the snakes are there.

[Codeine]

18. With snakes it's also been

a result of irresponsible hobbyists discovering that a Burmese python can become difficult to manage and house and very expensive to feed as they grow. They dump them in an environment in which they can thrive and walk away without a thought for the consequences.

[nitpicker]

17. Link to The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/07/hunters-capture-largest-python-florida-everglades