During a routine inspection of levees on Tuesday, engineers in the Everglades stumbled upon a near-record-breaking Burmese python measuring more than 18 feet long, a water management district spokesman said.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the snake, measuring at 18 feet 2 inches, fell short of the state record by 6 inches, Reuters reported.
Last May, a snake collector named Jason Leon captured what currently ranks as the largest Burmese python found in the wilds of Florida.
He spotted it at night along a canal in southeast Miami-Dade and had to slice off its head to finally subdue the powerful creature. The Florida Fish and Wild Conservation Commission verified its total length at 18 feet, 8 inches. The snake, a female, weighed in at 128 pounds, Miami Herald reported.
The previous record, in 2012, was a 17-foot, 7-inch female captured by scientists in Everglades National Park. That snake, pregnant with 87 eggs, weighed just over 164 pounds.
According to Reuters, the pythons, which can grow to more than 20 feet in their native habitat in Southeast Asia, are one of the most problematic invaders of Florida's sprawling Everglades wetlands.
"They eat indigenous species and their food sources, fueling concerns that the predator snakes will fundamentally change the ecosystem," Reuters reported.
The corpse of the python was taken to the University of Florida after it was killed on Tuesday. It will be measured and studied by scientists trying to combat the species, according to South Florida Water Management District spokesman Gabe Margasak.
Officials have said the python population is believed to have grown to as many as 150,000 in the Everglades.
Often found atop levees, the cold-blooded reptiles lie there for hours at a time to warm up under the Florida sun.
The snakes, one of the largest species in the world, found a home to their liking in the Everglades when pet owners started using the wetlands as a convenient dumping ground, Reuters reported.
