If you're with Indiana Jones on your opinion of snakes, you might not want to visit Florida. The longest Burmese python ever caught in the state has been discovered.
Weighing in at 18 feet, 8 inches long and 128 pounds, the snake was found alongside a rural road in South Florida. The news was confirmed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
About three feet of the snake were spotted in a roadside bush in Miami-Dade County by Jason Leon and his friends. Leon reportedly got out of his car, grabbed the snake behind its head, and dragged it into the open. Apparently, Leon once owned a Burmese python, and knew how to handle the snake. Unfortunately for both parties, the snake then wrapped itself around Leon's leg, and the group was forced to kill the animal with a knife to remove it.
Leon reported the snake to the local wildlife commission office, who put him in touch with Florida's exotic species hotline, www.IveGot1.org. The snake was then turned over to the University of Florida for a necropsy. University scientists have since confirmed that the female snake was not carrying any eggs.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is not blaming Leon for the incident though, and is instead grateful that he was able to spot the snake and report it, according to Kristen Sommers, head of the commission's exotic species coordination section.
"This event highlights how the exotic species hotline allows the public to help us obtain more information about Burmese pythons, so we can improve management of this invasive species," Sommers said.
Pythons are considered an invasive species in Florida, and researchers believe they are damaging the populations of native mammals in the Everglades.
The previous record for the longest python caught in the wild in the state was 17 feet, 7 inches, and 164 pounds. The snake was caught last August in the Everglades National Park.
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