The Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced this week that the efforts to eradicate invasive Burmese python snakes from the wild in Florida had hit a

The latest season has been a record-breaker for the capture and removal of Burmese pythons, according to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

The Burmese python — an apex predator that can grow over 18 feet long and eat animals larger than itself — has decimated native wildlife throughout much of South Florida. Its presence is directly linked to plummeting populations of small mammals and birds across vast stretches of the Everglades.

It took not one, but two tape measures to get the official length of this female Burmese python found near Everglades City, Florida.

Florida is fighting against the invasive Burmese python. Conservancy of Southwest Florida removed over 1,000 snakes since 2013. These pythons threaten the Everglades ecosystem. They eat native species.

A bobcat was documented killing and eating a 13-foot Burmese python in the Florida Everglades. Alligators, native snakes, and birds of prey are also known to prey on pythons. Burmese pythons are an invasive species, originally from Southeast Asia, that have established a significant population in the Everglades.

A group of python hunters caught the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in the Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County. The monster snake was 19 feet long. The previous record was held by python hunters Ryan Ausburn and Kevin Pavlidis who captured a python measuring a whopping 18-feet 9-inches in 2020.

A startling milestone has been reached in Florida’s war against the invasive Burmese pythons eating their way across the Everglades.