They seized nearly 98kg of pythons in Florida, the largest python ever found there

(CNN) – It is very large, permeable and covered with scales: a 220-pound, 16-foot-long Burmese mountain snake captured in Florida.

The organization announced Wednesday that the mountain snake is the heaviest in the states where it has been caught so far. Defense of Southwest Florida.

The organization captured large reptiles as part of its aggressive Burmese python research program.

Biologists tracked down a male “scout snake” named Dionysus with a radio transmitter and discovered the female. According to the organization, men are attracted to older women. Thus, by chasing breeding males like Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.

Ian Bardosek, director of projects for conservancy in southwest Florida, biologist Ian Easterling and trainer Kyle Findley captured and massacred a massive female python before bringing it to their field truck last December.

Bardoszek says they did not realize its size until the snake was weighed in the laboratory. The “collective distrust” occurred when they realized that the Burmese mountain snake caught in Florida had previously weighed 84 kg and weighed 97.5 kg.

But several months later, on April 28, biologists had the opportunity to autopsy the snake. They found that it broke another record: the highest number of eggs ever found, with 122 eggs growing in its womb.

Burmese mountain snakes are native to Southeast Asia, where they are thought to be endangered due to over-hunting.

But snakes that have escaped from the pet trade or been left in the wild have established a population in the Florida Everglades since the 1980s. As an invasive species, mountain snakes threaten Florida’s native wildlife, Bartholomew told CNN. State of Florida officials have taken steps to reduce the population Annual “Python Challenge” See who can get rid of more mountain snakes.

“There are no other Everglades in the world,” says Bardoszek. “This is a unique biological area, this is a gem,” it says, endangered by aggressive mountain snakes.

The autopsy revealed that the presence of a white tail deer’s hooves in the stomach of a 98-pound female python was an indication of how mountain snakes affect Florida’s wildlife. White-tailed deer are an important food source Leopards from FloridaAre in danger of extinction.

Bardosek said the python was “a common predator.” “Does not discriminate.”

At the moment Bardoszek says that “extinction does not seem questionable” and that his three-person team is working to reduce and control the number of Burmese pythons by removing the breeding females. In the last 11 years, more than 1,000 mountain snakes weighing more than 25,000 pounds in total have been removed from a small area of ​​Everglades covering an area of ​​about 100 square miles.

The scout snake Dionysus, who led the scientists to the record-breaking woman, was the “MVP” of the season, Bartoszek said. He led the group to four other female Burmese mountain snakes who had been euthanized and retired.

“We are not here to get praise.” We are here to raise awareness on this issue. “

“Scientists have immense respect for this animal. They are a very remarkable species,” he added.

“We are on the science side and there is a way to protect our native species,” Bardosek said.