Large python caught in Key Largo
A Key Largo family had an unwelcome holiday visitor in their yard this week — a 9-foot long Burmese python.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission went to the Loeb Avenue home Monday night and captured the invasive snake, according to an FWC press release.
The officers took the snake back to the FWC base at Whale Harbor in Islamorada and “dispatched” it, said Officer Bobby Dube, spokesman for the FWC. The officers chopped its head off, he said.
Pythons have become a major environmental problem since they were introduced to South Florida in the 1980s, mostly by pet owners who realized they couldn’t take care of a wild animal that can grow close to 20 feet.
The snakes took to the climate here, and their population in the Everglades has exploded to an estimated 30,000, wildlife officials say. The main problem with them is they prey on native wildlife and have no natural predators to keep their numbers in check.
The state has upped its budget to combat the infestation to about $1 million, and plans to hire 50 trained contractors to hunt them in six counties.
The python population in the Keys is also growing and posing a serious threat to native wildlife. State and federal officials say pythons, as well as feral cats, are making it difficult for the endangered Key Largo woodrats and cottonmice to make a rebound.
