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Florida functionary say they ’ve bagged one of the biggest Burmese Python ever found in the country : an 18.2 - foot - long ( 5.5 cadence ) female weigh some 150 quid ( 68 kilo ) .
The snake , which was dissipate and killed in the Everglades on Tuesday ( Feb. 4 ) , could define a disk for the great Burmese python ever find on state - owned lands , said Randy Smith , a spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District .
This 18.2-foot Burmese python was killed in the Florida Everglades, about 25 miles west of Miami, on Feb. 4, 2014.
The animal , however , measures a few inches short than thelongest - ever Burmese python find in Florida : a snake in the grass that stretched 18 feet , 8 inches ( 5.6 meter ) long and was wrangled by a man on the side of the road in a rural part of Miami - Dade County in May 2013 .
It ’s alarming to find Burmese python with such robust physique in the wild of Florida , because the snake in the grass is study an invasive metal money . Native to Southeast Asia , the nonvenomous constrictors are popular as exotic pets , and pet Burmese Python that were released or escaped are likely responsible for make the breeding universe that ’s taken grip in Florida in the past two decades . With no natural predator in the state , the snakes ' numbers have blow up , and they’rewiping out aboriginal wildlifelike bobcat , George Fox and raccoons . [ See Photos of Giant Burmese Pythons in the Florida Everglades ]
" You ’d be heavily pressed to get a hare or squirrel down there in the Everglades now , " Smith told Live Science . " These snake eat alligators — or they essay to . They do n’t have any enemies and they eat anything they can get their dentition on . "
The 18 - infantry snake was discovered on a levee about 25 miles ( 40 kilometers ) Benjamin West of Miami near the Tamiami Trail as field station workers with the Water Management District were conducting a routine levee inspection , Smith say . There ’s over 1,000 miles ( 1,600 km ) of levee in the area , he add , providing perfect hiding fleck for the pythons as they haunt their prey .
" They ’re ambuscade hunters , and they wish to hide down at the toe of the levee where there ’s plenty of Vannevar Bush and foliage , " Smith severalise Live Science .
The snake in the grass ’s body has been turned over to investigator at the University of Florida for a post - mortem examination , Smith said . The necropsy ( animal autopsy ) could reveal what the snake was eating before it died and whether it was carry any viable eggs .
When investigator cut open a old record - set female Burmese python ( which was 17 feet , 7 inches , or 5.3 m , in duration ) , they encounter an astonishing87 testis inside .
