Biggest Burmese Python Found in Florida—17.7 Feet, 87 Eggs
Researchers at the University of Florida examine the record-breaking Burmese python's corpse.
Florida has a new attraction—a 17.7-foot-long (5.4-meter-long) Burmese python, the biggest snake of that species ever found in the southeastern U.S. state, scientists say.
What's more, a necropsy on the euthanized python revealed she was carrying 87 eggs—also a state record for the species, a University of Florida team announced Monday.
Captured in Everglades National Park, the "monstrous" constrictor will eventually be displayed at the Florida Museum of Natural History, according to the university.
The Everglades is home to a growing population of the invasive Asian pythons, many of which originate from snakes that either escaped into or were dumped into the wild in the 1990s.
Sometimes adopted as a pet, the Burmese python is one of nine species of constrictor snakes—and about a million individual constrictors—that have been imported into the United States over the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Burmese Python Finding Florida "Ideal"
Florida's previous biggest-snake record-holder was a 16.8-foot-long (5.12-meter-long) Burmese python. Finding a bigger one "is a great indication that conditions in Florida are really perfect for them," said J.D. Willson, a biologist and snake expert at the University of Arkansas.
Burmese pythons, he said, grow biggest where there's plentiful food—in captivity, they can reach lengths of over 20 feet (6 meters).
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Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:56 am
