Florida Conservation Staff Discovers Huge Python Mating Groups in South Florida

Python hunters harvested two giant mating gatherings totaling 500 pounds of snakes. Image by Dipankar Photography

Python trackers located two python mating groups in Southwest Florida that together weighed approximately 500 pounds, with one of the 11 snakes measuring 16-feet long.

According to the Miami Herald, the catch came during February’s National Invasive Species Awareness Week, and is a reported record for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which has worked to remove the invasive snake species from the region for a decade.

Both mating masses were discovered when conservancy staff put implants in male “scout snakes,” released them, and tracked the signals to remote areas few people tread.

“It’s probably most people’s worst nightmare, but for us, it’s a good day. It’s a win for native wildlife,” the conservancy’s science coordinator Ian Bartoszek told McClatchy News.

The group posted images of the catch to its Facebook page.

“For 10 years, we’ve been catching and putting them (Burmese pythons) down humanely," conservatory wildlife spokesperson Ian Bartoszek wrote in the post. "You can’t put them in zoos and send them back to Southeast Asia. Invasive species management doesn’t end with rainbows and kittens. These are remarkable creatures, here through no fault of their own. They are impressive animals, good at what they do.”

Thousands of non-native species of plants and animals inhabit Florida.

The Burmese python has so negatively affected South Florida’s population of native wildlife and plants that the state holds an annual hunt for the snakes in that region.