A group of engineers got the biggest shock of their lives when they stumbled upon a gigantic snake in the Miami Everglades. The reptile, which has been identified as a Burmese Python, measured more than 18-feet in length and weighed around 150 pounds.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the snake missed the mark of becoming the largest python ever found in Florida by mere 6-inches. The largest snake on record was discovered by a snake collector in the state, which measured 18 feet 8 inches, says commission spokeswoman Katie Johnson.
Pythons are large snakes that originate from Southeast Asia, and can grow up to 20 feet in their natural habitat. These snakes as of late, are becoming problematic for Florida's Everglades wetlands because they eat endangered species, which fuel concerns that the snakes may have the ability to change the ecosystem.
"You'd be hard pressed to find a rabbit or squirrel down there in the Everglades now," Randy Smith, a spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District, said. "These snakes eat alligators - or they try to. They don't have any enemies and they eat anything they can get their teeth on."
While pythons do have teeth, they are not venomous snakes, but snakes that constrict their prey.
Furthermore, this particular python, due to its size and weight, is big enough to swallow a human, which is one of the reasons why these snakes are considered dangerous.
In the right conditions, a human won't see this python coming, as these creatures hide in the grass and ambush their prey. Once it pins the prey down, it will then begin to coil its body around it and squeeze until the prey is dead.
"They're ambush hunters, and they like to hide down at the toe of the levee where there's plenty of bush and foliage," Smith told Live Science.
The python found on Tuesday, however, will pose no danger to humans or endangered species, as it was killed, and its body has been delivered to the University of Florida, where it will be measured and studied by scientists.
