It took five men to wrangle a Burmese python in South Florida on Friday And, no wonder -- the snake measured more than 17 feet long and weighed 198 pounds -- the second largest in state history.
Conservationist Mike Elfenbein was in a convoy with other python hunters in the Big Cypress National Preserve shortly before sunset when he saw something huge slithering across the road, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
“It was stretched out across the road,” Elfenbein told the newspaper. “It was so huge it looked like an alligator.”
Three other hunters -- Trey Barber, Carter Gavlock and Holden Hunter -- also saw the reptile.
“It was more than a snake, it was a monster,” Elfenbein told CBS News.
Gavlock, 21, hopped out of one of the trucks and sprinted to the female python, grabbing her by the tail, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
“That was a big mistake because the snake damn near took him into the canal,” Elfenbein told the newspaper. “There was nothing he could do to stop it.”
Gavlock struggled to hold down what he called “a dinosaur” and called for help.
“I was like, ‘Hey, somebody jump on this thing with me. It’s dragging me across the road,’” he told the Sun-Sentinel.
The five men managed to sit on the python and battled her for 45 minutes, CBS News reported.
‘It was insane’: Second-heaviest Burmese python caught in Florida — a 198-pound beast https://t.co/OnHFgx1qMP
— South Florida Sun Sentinel (@SunSentinel) November 7, 2023
Elfenbein then called professional python hunter Amy Siewe, according to the news outlet.
“If Mike is calling me right now, it has to be a python,” said Siewe, known as the “Python Huntress.” She drove to Big Cypress and found the men fighting with “the fattest python I had ever seen.”
Using a captive bolt gun -- the preferred method of killing the reptile by the American Veterinary Association -- Siewe killed the python, which is an invasive species, CBS News reported.
Siewe took the snake to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida to get an official weight and measurement, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The reptile weighed 198 pounds with a 23-inch girth and measured 17 feet, 2 inches in length, according to the newspaper.
The heaviest python ever recorded in Florida was an 18-foot, 215-pound snake caught at Picayune Strand State Forest in 2021, according to CBS News.
The longest python caught measured 19 feet and weighed 125 pounds. It was caught four months ago by amateur hunter Jake Waleri, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Elfenbein posted photographs of the huge snake on his Facebook page.
“This snake ate a lot of native wildlife to get this big,” he wrote. “She ate her last meal!”
