iStockphoto / dennisvdw / Mark Kostich
large Reticulated python in the rain forest in Puerto Rico
A snake wrangler from South Florida has captured the largest Reticulated Python ever caught and measured in Puerto Rico where these invasive snakes have established a breeding population and flourished. Not to be confused with the Burmese python subspecies which is an invasive species proliferating throughout South Florida, the Reticulated python holds the world record as the longest snake species in the world.
Kevin Pavlidis is best known by ‘Snakeaholic’ across social media and earlier today he debuted a new video and series of clips showing off the record-setting snake, an 18’4″ Reticulated python captured in Puerto Rico during a recent hunt.
Largest Reticulated Python Ever Caught In Puerto Rico
Check out this absolute unit of a snake. In the Instagram caption, he says the snake was was spotted as it was trying to eat a pet cat. After receiving a report about the snake, they began searching and were able to spot the snake within 20 minutes. The rest was history. Here are 8 people holding it up for the camera:
Not to be confused with FishinGarrett, the ‘Yoink Guy’ who is arguably the most popular South Florida snake wrangler on social media, Snakeaholic has caught some monster snakes over years but none compare to this behemoth.
For comparison sake, the longest Reticulated python ever measured is 23 feet and 8 inches (7.22 meters). That legendary snake was dubbed “The Baroness” (aka ‘Ibuan’) and is a female python caught in the Maros region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia earlier this year after first being spotted late last year. There have been unsubstantiated claims of a Reticulated python measuring 32 feet, 8 inches back in 1912 but that was never verified.
Alas, this is the largest one ever caught on the island of Puerto Rico where these invasive snakes are so pervasive they have established a breeding population just as the Burmese pythons have here in Florida. After catching this snake, ‘Snakeaholic’ uploaded a full video of the record-setting catch to his YouTube channels so be sure smash that ‘subscribe’ button after watching:
What exactly do you do after catching the biggest snake you’ve ever seen? Well, if you are Kevin Pavlidis you bust out the measuring tape to verify that it is a record for the longest one ever caught in Puerto Rico. Here they are taking a full measurement of this living dinosaur:
Battling The Invasive Population
On Threads, Kevin added more context to the record-setting catch. He wrote “as incredible as these snakes are, they are an unbelievably large threat to the delicate ecosystem of Puerto Rico. It’s not the snake’s fault, this is yet another human error of introducing a non-native animal and proyectoreticor and I are doing our best to fix the problem other people created.”
The best way to handle invasive species, at least here in Florida, is humane capture and dispatching them to prevent future breeding. A large reticulated python can lay anywhere from 20 to 100 eggs at a time with larger females typically laying 40-80 in each clutch. That ultimately leads to exponential growth in the invasive population if not dealt with.