To help put that into perspective, that’s about three times as long as any six-foot friends you have.
Yeah. Big.
The FWC shared a picture on Friday of Cynthia and Jonathon posing with the huge reptile, which weighed in at 98lb 10oz.
Though a lot of people would be terrified at the thought of getting close to a creature that big, the two team members seemed chuffed with their catch – probably because they set a new record for the largest snake ever captured by the PAT team.
Alongside the photo, the FWC wrote:
Record breaker!
Cynthia Downer and Jonathan Lopez brought in this 98 pound, 10 ounce snake from the Big Cypress National Preserve!
This snake is the largest captured by our Team, and second longest python ever removed in the state.
In a Facebook comment, they said they knew it was a female as male pythons don’t reach that length.
The FWC has now removed 900 Burmese pythons from the wild in Florida. Eric Sutton, Executive Director of the FWC, commented on the milestone, saying the removal of the snakes made ‘a significant impact to protect Florida’s native wildlife’.
He continued:
With leadership from Governor Ron DeSantis, we are committed to working with our partners including the South Florida Water Management District and the National Park Service to accomplish our goal of removing pythons from our beautiful state.
The organisation explained Burmese pythons became established in Florida as a result of escaped or released pets. It is illegal to release non-native species into the wild and doing so can negatively impact native wildlife and habitat.
