A monster 17-foot python that was captured in the Florida Everglades over the weekend is the largest caught so far under Florida’s python elimination program. Launched in March, the South Florida Water Management District’s python elimination program pays hunters $8.10 an hour. It then pays an extra $50 for a 4-foot snake and $25 for each additional foot beyond that. For this python, the three hunters will reportedly get $375.
They caught this 132-pound Burmese python at the Big Cypress National Preserve. The hunters said it was much larger when they initially wrangled it. Burmese pythons eat alligators, raccoons, possums, otters, and all smaller prey and have no natural predators themselves.