Pregnant python removed from Florida Everglades after getting tracked by radio transmitters stuck on male pythons

Pythons are an invasive species in the Florida Everglades and have been a pain for conservation officers ever since the snake was introduced into the environment in the 1980s.

Now using a new approach, the ability to track pythons are getting easier and Big Cypress National Preserve have bagged a big one after capturing a pregnant female that was over 17 feet long, weighing 140 pounds and with the ability to unleash even more baby pythons into the ecosystem.

The pregnant python caught had 73 developing eggs.

She is the largest python ever removed from Big Cypress National Preserve– and she was caught because she was tracked by male pythons.

Males have been outfitted with radio transmitters allows the team to track the male to locate breeding females. The team not only removes the invasive snakes, but collects data for research, develop new removal tools, and learn how the pythons are using the Preserve.

The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found the massive female nearby.

All of the python work at Big Cypress is focused on controlling this invasive species, which poses significant threats to native wildlife.

About the author

Peg Fong is also in recovery from newspapers

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.