The second largest snake ever captured in Florida was caught earlier this month in Florida’ Everglades National Park. The Burmese Python measured 18-feet, 3-inches, and is just 4 inches shorter than the largest snake ever caught in the Sunshine State. As you might have noticed from the name ‘Burmese Python’, this species of snake is not native to the state of Florida, rather it’s native land is across the world in Burma (Myanmar). This massive specimen was captured on July 9th in The Everglades’ Shark Valley.
Python captured at Shark Valley in @EvergladesNPS may be second largest ever caught in Fla.
http://t.co/D1cGJNFTyr pic.twitter.com/ADKIMKgmSO
— CBS4 Miami (@CBSMiami) July 28, 2015
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For the past few decades Florida’s Everglades National Park has been a hotbed for gargantuan invasive snake species. It started with a devastating hurricane that either forced South Florida exotic reptile breeders to voluntarily release their snakes and toads into The Everglades to save them from the storm’s destruction, or the storm blew out houses and in turn freed these exotic reptiles into The Everglades. According to Miami’s CBS Local, the estimates of the #’s of invasive python species in The Everglades range between several thousand on up to hundreds of thousands.
And if you think these invasive species are isolated to the state of Florida, think again. This 14-foot, 7-inch Burmese Python was captured across the country in Missouri this week as well. It is reported that the python in Missouri was first spotted when it tried to eat someone’s poodle!