MOMMY PYTHON!
Monster snakes & babies bagged in Florida nursery
FEARLESS reptile wranglers on the hunt for invasive Burmese pythons raided a snake nursery in the wilds of Florida — and bagged two supersized female serpents, 18 slithering hatchlings and nearly two dozen eggs!
The hiss-toric motherload was found at the
Big Cypress National Preserve.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officer Matthew Rubenstein and python contractor Alex McDuffie first encountered a 10-foot female coiled around 23 unhatched eggs — with almost 20 tiny squirming snakes nearby.
When Rubenstein returned to the same site the following day, he discovered another monstrous mama measuring 17 feet, six inches long!
“The pythons and unhatched eggs were removed from the sensitive habitat, helping to prevent future negative impacts to our native wildlife,” an FWC official reveals.
Burmese pythons have been wreaking havoc on the Sunshine State for decades after unwanted pets released by careless owners reproduced at alarming rates — and grew to gargantuan sizes!
The predators are found primarily in the Everglades, where they gobble down birds, mammals and other reptiles — decimating food sources for endangered animals.
Some trappers follow male scout snakes fitted with radio transmitters to breeding grounds. But Rubenstein and McDuffie made their discovery on their own after scouring an area where they’d bagged a youngling.
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced the state would once again hold a ten-day Florida Python Challenge — offering cash bounties for the humanely killed critters!
A $2,500 reward will go to the hunter who captures the most pythons — and a $1,500 prize goes to whoever snags the longest specimen!
As GLOBE recently reported, researchers at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida snared the state’s largest ever python — which weighed a whopping 215 pounds, measured 17.7 feet long and was packed with a record 122 developing eggs!