Python Hunter Captures Massive 16-Foot In Everglades
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Holy snakes! The South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program has netted two more giant pythons in less than a week.
Python hunter Eric Bramblet, who works as a Collier County Sheriff's deputy during his day job, captured a 16-foot, 3-inch Burmese python this past weekend as part of the SFWMD Python Elimination Program.
The massive snake weighed in at 143 pounds, one pound short of the program record set by Nicholas Baños and Leonardo Sanchez in early April.
The SFWMD posted the big catch on their social media.
655 invasive pythons have now been removed from SFWMD lands since late March.
Bramblet's catch is the fourth 16-footer caught during the program — and the second turned in over the last six days.
Hunters taking part in the Python Elimination Program earn minimum wage plus a bounty for every python they capture. The bigger the snake, the bigger the check.
The largest snake ever caught in Florida was 18-feet, 7 inches and was caught in 2013 in Miami-Dade.
Burmese pythons are an invasive reptile with no natural predators, which appear to be wiping out most of the small mammals that once thrived in Everglades National Park.