A Miami man briefly wrestled with and ultimately used a knife to kill a Burmese python measuring 18 feet, 8 inches.
That sets a state record for pythons captured or killed in the wild. The previous record measured 17 feet, 7 inches.
Jason
Leon was not hunting pythons but, while driving late at night recently
in southeast Miami-Dade County, he and a friend spotted about 3 feet of
snake protruding from the brush.
Leon applied the brakes, climbed out of the car, grabbed the visible portion of the snake, and began hauling it onto the road.
The
giant constrictor responded by trying to wrap its body around one of
Leon’s legs, but he was able to dispatch the reptile with a knife.
Burmese pythons are native to grassy marshes of Southeast Asia and can grow to about 23 feet and weigh up to about 200 pounds.
In
Florida, where they’ve been released as pets and escaped from wildlife
facilities, there are thousands of them, mostly within the Everglades
ecosystem.
As such a large and voracious invasive species,
they’re a threat to native wildlife. The state would like to eradicate
them, if that were possible.
Leon, meanwhile, is being praised.
The
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued a news
release, in which exotic species specialist Kristen Sommers stated:
“The
FWC is grateful to him for both safety removing such a large Burmese
python and for reporting its capture…With the help of people like Mr.
Leon and our ongoing partnerships with other agencies, the FWC is
advancing what we know about Burmese pythons in Florida.”
Leon,
who said he once owned Burmese pythons and has experience handling the
nonpoisonous snakes, reported the capture via a hotline used for
reporting exotic species.
The python was delivered to the
University of Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center
where it was measured and a necropsy was performed.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment