Massive 130-Pound Snake Caught in Florida Everglades Burmese Python Hunt

A recent Burmese Python hunt in the Florida Everglades ended up producing an incredible and [...]

A recent Burmese Python hunt in the Florida Everglades ended up producing an incredible and surprising find: a massive 130-pound snake.

Jason Leon, a snake hunter in the panhandle state, caught the enormous snake in the early morning hours on Friday, as part of the South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program, which pays people to curb the population of the invasive species.

"That snake could pretty much kill any full-grown man," Leon said of the reptile, which you can see a photo of here on Yahoo. "If that snake was alive right now, it would probably take like three of us to be able to control that snake."

Back in 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit the state and, at some point, a Burmese python escaped a breeding facility and found its way to the Everglades National Park.

Once there, the species originally from Southeast Asia took to the wetlands and feasted on raccoons, deer, and eggs. It multiplied into the tens of thousands and ravaged the ecosystem there.

There was never any concrete evidence that effects of the hurricane were directly responsible for the Python's escape, but the timing was clearly enough to give investigators cause to believe there was a connection.

"I cannot say enough about the tremendous work of these dedicated professionals to rid the Everglades of this destructive python threat," Dan O'Keefe, chairman of the governing board in the South Florida district, said about the snake hunters in a press release earlier this year.

"Eliminating one snake from the Everglades is much more than a single kill. It's the prevention of 40 to 50 more snakes by destroying a large female carrying 40 to 50 eggs and it's the countless number of native Florida animals spared from the jaws of these killing machines," he added.

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