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A team of researchers recently discovered the largest Burmese python ever captured in Florida while on her way to a meeting with a male snake. According to the researchers, her last meal was an entire white-tailed deer, BBC reported.
The female Burmese python, which weighed 215 pounds (98 kilogrammes) and measured over 18 feet (5 metres), was captured after researchers deployed a male “scout” to locate her.
She had 122 developing eggs while she was caught, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in a news release.
The female python fought with researchers for about 20 minutes before being subdued, said the local media reports on Wednesday.
According to CBS News, the team tracked python movements, mating habits, and habitat utilisation with the help of radio transmitters implanted in male “scout” snakes, said Ian Bartoszek, who is a wildlife biologist and the program’s environmental science project manager.
When the Burmese female python was killed, she was around the height of a giraffe stretched out vertically, Mr Bartoszek further said.
In a region in the western Everglades, the team used a scout snake named Dionysus, or Dion for short. She was hiding out in the Florida Everglades forest when researchers found her.
The male python, Dion came to a halt at the western part of the forest. “We knew he was there for a reason, and the team found him with the largest female we have seen to date,” Mr Bartoszek said.
The largest male python ever found there was 16ft and 140lbs but the female python is estimated that she was up to 20 years old when caught, BBC reported.
In an effort to save local species in the ecosystem of the state of Florida, researchers have been hunting pythons for more than ten years.
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