The largest python ever found in Florida is 18 feet long and weighs a whopping 200 pounds.
The largest Burmese python ever seen in Florida has been discovered and kidnapped from the Everglades hiding place by researchers who used another python as a bait. Reported by National Geographic (Opens in a new tab)..
The giant snake is a female, measuring about 18 feet (5.4 meters) in length and weighing 215 pounds (97 kilograms), 30 pounds (13.6 kg) more than the second largest python ever found in the state. increase. Most Burmese pythons (Burmese python) The length found in Florida is 6-10 feet (1.8-3 m), but in endemic habitats of Southeast Asia, snakes typically reach 18 feet (5.4 m), with the largest being 20 feet (20 feet). ) May be reached. 6 m) or more, Florida Fish Wildlife Conservation Commission (Opens in a new tab)..
Since its introduction in Florida in the 1970s, the invading snake has successfully bred in the southern regions of the state, preying on many native birds and mammals, and occasionally crocodile and pet dogs.
Burmese pythons, despite being larger than most of Florida’s native species, are extremely difficult to find in the vast wetlands, forests and subtropical forests of the Everglades and its adjoining areas. A Naples-based organization, a python tracker in a reserve in southwestern Florida, has GPS inside male pythons to reduce these invading populations by pulling breeding females out of hiding. Embed a tracker and send these “scout snakes” into the wild. , According to National Geographic.
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“Large breeding female Nishiki snakes are very important to remove from these ecosystems,” Sarah Funk, a biologist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told National Geographic.
A 12-foot (3.7 m) long scout snake, Dionysos (nicknamed Dion), served as a record female bait captured by the team in December 2021.
At that time, the team noticed that Dion had placed himself in a specific location near Naples in the western Everglades ecosystem. When they went looking for a Scout snake, they found him wrapping around a giant woman. After a fierce wrestling match, researchers managed to pack a giant woman into a bag, secure it in a bathtub, and carry it to a research facility. (In the meantime, Dion survived the encounter and continued to scout the Conservancy.)
After euthanizing a female snake, the team performed an autopsy on a giant python. Within that body, they found a record 122 egg “follicles”. This is an almost spherical structure that matures into an egg when fertilized. In the snake’s gastrointestinal tract, they found pieces of fur, melted bone masses, and hoof masses. This indicates that the last meal of the python was an adult white-tailed deer.
According to National Geographic, scientists have learned that Burmese burmese prey on an estimated 24 mammal species, 47 species of birds, and 2 reptiles in Florida, based on similar necrosis performed in the past. I was scared.
“These snakes have the ability to completely transform the ecosystem, and I think they already have it,” said the ecologist and collaborator of the Conservation Team at the National Geographic Survey Wetlands and Aquatic Research Center. Kristenhart told National Geographic.
For more information on record-breaking Python, natgeo.com (Opens in a new tab)..
Originally published on Live Science.
The largest python ever found in Florida is 18 feet long and weighs a whopping 200 pounds.
Source link The largest python ever found in Florida is 18 feet long and weighs a whopping 200 pounds.
