Controversy in Florida over young people who caught a gigantic python: «we were going to donate it» – USA – International

A 22-year-old man found in Florida a burmese python which, according to a local NGO, is the longest ever found in that southern US state, with a size of five meters and 79 centimeters, and a weight of 56.6 kilos.

jake waleri located the specimen on Monday in the national reserve big cypressabout 70 km west of the city of Miami, while participating in the effort to stop the spread of this invasive snake.

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«It’s amazing to be able to have an impact on the South Florida environment. We love this ecosystem and try to preserve it as much as possible,» Waleri said.

In a video that Waleri published on the Instagram social network, you can see how the amateur hunter takes the python off the side of a road by dragging it by the tail. Then he grabs her by the neck and drops on top of her.

After a brief struggle in which the snake tries to bite him, he manages to subdue it with the help of a partner.

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Waleri brought his prize to the headquarters of the NGO Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, on the Gulf of Mexico.

«We wanted to donate this finding to science,» Waleri added in a press release collected by this environmental organization for the conservation of wildlife.

This organization, which tracks and studies Burmese pythons in the state, measured a specimen that it described as a record.

«We had a feeling that these snakes could be this big and now we have clear evidence,» he said. ian easterlingbiologist of the NGO, in a statement shared by it.

burmese pythons

Burmese pythons, originally imported into the United States from Southeast Asia as pets, have become a threat to South Florida since humans released specimens into the Everglades wetlands in the late 1970s.

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This constricting snake does not have any natural predatorand feeds on other reptiles, birds and mammals such as raccoons or white-tailed deer.

It can measure up to six metersaccording to him United States Geological Survey.

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To try to protect the local ecosystem, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission pays professional hunters to help curb python eruptions. The state also organizes every year a contest open to amateur hunters with a prize of $2,500.

However, in Florida is prohibited the possession and sale of this type of reptiles as pets and all over the country is not allowed to be imported.

INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
*With information from EFE and AFP