18-Foot Python Caught In Florida In Record-Breaking Attempt To Save Ecosystem

A man, identified as John Hammond, single-handedly caught an 18-foot Burmese python. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) posted a photo and news of the catch, which was part of the Python Elimination Program, on Facebook Tuesday.

Hammond’s python reportedly weighed 150 pounds, 30 pounds less than the previous record python nabbed by Kyle Penniston early November. Hammond was deep in the Florida Everglades when he spotted the huge python.

“So I grabbed its head, got wrapped up from the waist down and we fell over, and we laid there for about 30 minutes or so,” he said. “And I had her head – that face – there the whole time while she was constricting me from the waist down."

“The snake bags were too small. I had a tent bag in the truck. I coaxed it into the tent bag, and then the tent bag into a gang box," he said, adding that the entire process took 45 minutes.

Pythons have been blamed for wreaking havoc on Florida’s ecosystem by their relentless eating habits.

“They've eaten-up the marsh rabbits, the small mice and stuff, and everything that normally eats them is impacted because they can't. The food chain is not there anymore,” the Florida wildlife trapper told local media.

Workers with the FWC reportedly euthanized the massive python -- the largest snake that has been captured since the program has been in effect. The program run by the South Florida Water Management District is designed to protect the Everglades from pythons.

The removal program gives python hunters cash incentives for catching the snake -- $50 per python up to 4 feet and an additional $25 for each foot over that paid by the water district. So Hammond’s catch was worth $400.

The South Florida Water Management District said Penniston's catch was a 17-foot, 5-inch female python that was captured from the district lands in Miami-Dade County. Python hunters have now eliminated over 1,850 of the snakes on district lands.