This time-lapse video shows the rearticulation of a massive 17’7” Burmese python conducted at the Florida Museum of Natural History in 2014. Museum researchers performing a necropsy on the snake in 2012 discovered it weighed 164.5 pounds and contained 87 eggs, both Florida state records for this invasive species at that time.
The animal was brought to the museum on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville after it was captured in Everglades National Park as part of a long-term project with the U.S. Department of the Interior to research methods for managing the state’s invasive Burmese python problem. The snake, part of the Everglades National Park museum collection, will be displayed at the Florida Museum of Natural History before it is returned to Everglades National Park.
Native to Southeast Asia and first found in the Everglades in 1979, the Burmese python is one of the deadliest and most competitive predators in South Florida. With no known natural predator, population estimates for the python range from the thousands to hundreds of thousands. They were determined to be an established species in 2000 and are a significant concern, said Florida Museum herpetologist Kenneth Krysko.
Florida has the world’s worst invasive reptile and amphibian problem. Krysko led a 20-year study published in September 2011 in Zootaxa showing 137 non-native species were introduced to Florida between 1863 and 2010. The study verified the pet trade as the No. 1 cause of species introductions, and the Burmese python was one of 56 non-native species determined to be reproducing and established in the state. These numbers have increased since the 2011 study.
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