According to Florida officials, a team of US researchers caught the biggest Burmese python ever found in the state.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida estimates that the female snake was over 18 feet long and weighed 98 kilogrammes. According to experts, this species is regarded as invasive in Florida.
A report from New York Post states that, the researchers had to battle with the massive snake for 20 minutes in order to capture it. It was subsequently placed in a freezer until April of this year.
The snake was discovered to contain 122 eggs in its abdomen during an inspection. According to the journal, the python set a new record for the number of eggs a female python can produce in a breeding cycle.
Furthermore, researchers discovered “hoof cores” within the snake’s stomach, indicating that its most recent meal was a white-tailed deer.
But how was this Burmese python discovered?
The wildlife biologists claimed that they employed a novel study method that involves implanting radio transmitters in male snakes to guide them to breeding areas where “large, reproductive females” may be removed to prevent their eggs from hatching in the wild.
The Conservancy’s wildlife biologist and environmental science project manager, Ian Bartoszek, told the Publication that,
The removal of female pythons plays a critical role in disrupting the breeding cycle of these apex predators that are wreaking havoc on the Everglades ecosystem and taking food sources from other native species.
This is the wildlife issue of our time for southern Florida.
Image Credits: Maggie Steber, National Geographic
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WOW!!😲 Look at the size of that thing!! Holy Cow!!