FLORIDA – Trappers captured a massive, record-setting python at Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve on Friday.
According to a post on the park’s Facebook page, the 17-foot-long snake is the largest python ever removed from the park.
The park said she weighed 140 pounds and contained 73 developing eggs.
According to the park, researchers use male pythons with radio transmitters to locate breeding females. The team that located this giant female tracked a sentinel male and found the massive female nearby.
The park said the work done there is focused on controlling the invasive pythons, which pose a significant threat to native wildlife.
According to WFLA News Channel 8, hunters and researchers have captured more than 2,000 pythons since the Python Elimination Program started two years ago in an effort to eradicate the invasive species, which has been threatening native wildlife in South Florida.
