Then, in a moment of creative improvisation, Nickell got the upper hand on the python by taking a seat. “I could actually just lean forward and just sat on her, and she couldn’t move after that.

Donna Kalil, 60, of Kendall, Fla., a python removal agent contracted by the South Florida Water Management District, with an 8.5-foot python she caught west of Miami.

Black-headed pythons, like other python species, are non-venomous, and kill their prey by coiling around it to suffocate it, and then swallowing it whole. Snake cannibalism is not unheard of.

More than 6,300 pounds of Burmese python were tracked and removed by the team, which has removed more than 40,000 pounds of invasive snake across a 200-square-mile area since 2013.