Record-sized python caught in Everglades

[Bogertophis]

May she rest in peace... (I agree that they must be removed, but it still makes me sad- the snakes are victims.)
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Record-sized python caught in Everglades

Hunters capture snake 18-feet, 9-inches long
Amy Bennett Williams
Fort Myers News-Press USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Everglades wildlife is a little safer, now that the longest python ever measured in Florida has been caught and killed.
Hunters Ryan Ausburn and Kevin Pavlidis nabbed the record-breaking specimen, the South Florida Water Management District announced Thursday. At 104 pounds, she wasn’t the heaviest snake ever removed, but at 18 feet, 9 inches, she was the longest. The previous record-holder, captured in 2013, was an inch shorter, and some have weighed in at around 140 pounds.
Making their feat even more important is that the reptile was an egg-bearing female, said district spokesman Randy Smith. The voracious Asian imports have been wreaking havoc in South Florida’s ecosystem.
Not only do they eat wildlife, they carry a lung-destroying parasite that’s spreading to Florida’s native snakes. Though it is illegal to release nonnative species into the wild, pet Burmese pythons that escaped or were dumped are now established in Florida.
“They are apex predators,” Smith said. “They have decimated the natural wildlife that makes the Everglades great. They’ve got no enemies.”
The duo caught the snake Oct. 2 about 35 miles west of Miami along the L-28 Tieback Canal.
The capture was part of the joint python elimination program by the district and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, under the direction of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
So far, hunters in the expanded program have removed more than 5,000 invasive pythons from the Everglades.


“(The) record breaking capture shows that our increased efforts are working to get harmful pythons out of the precious Everglades ecosystem,” SFWMD Governing Board Member “Alligator Ron” Bergeron said in a release. “Together with our partners and the public’s help, we can restore the Everglades and combat the harmful pythons that hurt Florida’s native wildlife.”

Kevin Pavlidis, left, and Ryan Ausburn hold the record-breaking python.