Time is running out for any Florida Burmese python hunter looking to top what Carl Jackson did earlier this year.<\/p>\n
As of Sept. 24, Jackson still has the distinction of capturing the state’s heaviest python in 2026, which was big news when he caught it in January because it’s in the record books as the second heaviest python ever caught in the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n
The massive invasive snake, a female, weighed 202 pounds.<\/a> It was 6-feet, 10-inches long.<\/p>\n Nine months later, no one has caught a heavier python despite a variety of elimination efforts going on in the state, including the Florida Python Challenge<\/a> held for 10 days in July and the monthly South Florida Water Management District’s Python Elimination Program.<\/p>\n What’s the heaviest python ever caught in Florida?<\/p>\n The state record for heaviest python caught<\/a> is a 215 pound beast caught in 2022. The invasive snake, a colossal female, was caught by Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists in the Everglades. It measured just under 18-feet long.<\/p>\n About his near-record catch this year, Jackson, who came from Utah to Florida to hunt pythons with his family, said he spent some time wrestling the snake, which coiled several times and wrapped itself around him.<\/p>\n Jackson estimated the snaked dragged him 10-15 feet and over a red and black ant hill along the way before the struggle \u2212 all of it captured on video \u2212 finally ended.<\/p>\n On this day, a python hunter played cowboy.<\/p>\n “It was like riding a slow horse,” Jackson said.<\/p>\n During the capture, Jackson said he needed to call on his “team” and “assistants” several times to get the snake uncoiled from his body. He was referring to his wife, Tasha, and his adopted children, Ryker Young, 20, and Jazzlyn Bateman, 16. It was only the day before that all three of them became Jackson’s certified assistants in the FWC’s Python Action Team – Removing Invasive Constrictors program.<\/p>\n What happens to Burmese pythons caught in Florida?<\/p>\n According to Florida Fish and Wildlife<\/a>, captured Burmese pythons must be humanely euthanized at the site of capture and cannot be transported alive.<\/p>\n While they are not protected in Florida, anti-cruelty law<\/a> still applies.<\/p>\n Many methods are available to kill invasive pythons. Regardless of the method you use, two steps must be completed<\/a> to humanely kill a reptile:<\/p>\n Step 2: The animal’s brain should be destroyed by “pithing,” which prevents the animal from regaining consciousness.<\/p>\n Step 1: The method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately.<\/p>\n What are the heaviest pythons ever caught in Florida?<\/p>\n Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists caught the heaviest Burmese python ever recorded in the Florida Everglades<\/a> in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.<\/p>\n A 198-pound Burmese python was captured<\/a> in November 2023 in the Big Cypress Preserve, making it the second-heaviest<\/a> ever caught in the Sunshine State. The massive snake was 17 feet, 2 inches long.<\/p>\n XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<\/p>\n XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<\/p>\n XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX<\/p>\n