Researchers have discovered the largest Burmese python ever seen in Florida after luring it out of its hiding place in the Everglades with another male python.
The giant python was a female, measuring nearly 5.4 meters long and weighing 97 kilograms – 13.6 kilograms heavier than the largest python ever found in the state. Most of the Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) found in Florida are 1.8-3 meters long. According to scientists, in the species’ native habitat in Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons are usually up to 5.4 meters long, and large individuals can reach 6 meters or more in length.
Since being discovered in Florida in the 1970s, this invasive python has successfully reproduced in southern parts of the state. Their prey is usually native birds and mammals, as well as crocodiles or domestic dogs. Although larger than most Florida native species, the Burmese python is extremely difficult to spot in the vast marshes, woodlands, and subtropical forests of the Everglades and surrounding areas.
In an effort to reduce these invasive populations, the Southwestern Florida Conservancy’s python trackers, based in Naples, implanted GPS tracking devices inside the male pythons and then released them. into nature. According to National Geographic, these “reconnaissance pythons” will help lure breeding females out of hiding places.
Sarah Funck, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said: “Large breeding female pythons urgently need to be removed from these ecosystems because of their ability to breed. many disproportionate children”.
A 3.7-meter-long “reconnaissance python” named Dionysus (nicknamed Dion) preyed on the record-breaking female that the team caught in December 2021.
At that time, the “research” team found that Dion was residing at a site near Naples, in the ecosystem west of the Everglades. When they went to check on the scout python, they found it curled up near a giant female. After a long period of control of the animal, the researchers were able to put the female in a bag and transport it to the research facility. Meanwhile, Dion survives the encounter and continues his scouting duties for the museum.
After killing the giant female python, the team conducted a dissection of the animal. Inside its body, they found a record number of 122 egg “follicles” – quasi-spherical structures that can develop into eggs after being fertilized. In the python’s digestive tract, they found bits of hair, bones and a piece of hooves. This is proof that the python’s last meal was an adult white-tailed deer.
Based on similar incidents conducted in the past, scientists have learned that Burmese pythons prey on an estimated 24 species of mammals, 47 species of birds and 2 species of reptiles in the state of Florida, according to the National Geographic.
“These pythons have the power to completely change the ecosystem,” said Kristen Hart, an ecologist at the US Geological Survey’s Center for Aquatic and Wetland Research and a collaborator on the conservation team. survive, told National Geographic.