{"id":508544,"date":"2026-03-07T04:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T04:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508544\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T04:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T04:22:09","slug":"longest-snake-ever-measured-is-over-23-5-feet-long-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/508544\/","title":{"rendered":"Longest snake ever measured is over 23.5 feet long"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A snake<\/a> in southwest Indonesia has shattered the Guinness World Record<\/a> for the longest serpent ever spotted in the wild. Nicknamed \u201cIbu Baron\u201d (the Baroness), the giant female reticulated python<\/a> (Malayopython reticulatus) discovered in late 2025<\/a> measures 23-feet-and-8-inches from head to tail\u2014about the same length as a regulation soccer goal. That\u2019s 10 inches longer than the previous record from another female reticulated python from Borneo measured in 1999. That said, onsite herpetologists suspected her length may technically be even longer.<\/p>\n

The official world record confirmation took place earlier this year in Maros, an area in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. A team of experts including local conservationist Budi Purwanto, snake handler Diaz Nugraha, and photographer Radu Frentiu took the lead on measuring and documenting the reptile. They knew time was of the essence after initially hearing of the reptile\u2019s existence from a mutual acquaintance. Reticulated pythons much shorter than the Baroness are often killed by local residents whenever they are spotted due to the threat they frequently pose to livestock, pets, children, and even some fully grown adults.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\tLongest Wild Snake \ud83d\udc0d\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Luckily, the newly crowned record holder was still safe and healthy when located by the team. The group confirmed her length with the help of some volunteers, but noted her size may be an understatement. The Baroness was measured while it was fully awake and not under any anesthesia. Snakes are known to lengthen by as much as 10 percent when their muscles are relaxed during sedation, meaning she could be 26 feet long. But because the procedure is inherently risky, the conservationists didn\u2019t want to unnecessarily endanger her.<\/p>\n

From there, it was time for a weigh-in. At a whopping 213 pounds, that\u2019s about the same size as a mature giant panda, according to the recent Guinness World Record announcement<\/a>. There\u2019s also no way the Baroness isn\u2019t sometimes heavier than that, because she hadn\u2019t eaten recently at the time of her weigh-in.<\/p>\n

While reticulated pythons aren\u2019t venomous, they are still plenty dangerous. Most of all that weight is thanks to its incredibly strong muscles, which it uses to squeeze and asphyxiate its prey.<\/p>\n

\"FrentiuFrentiu lays next to the Baroness for a size comparison. Credit: Guinness World Records<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery coil of muscle is a powerhouse on that snake and it seemed to work individually,\u201d Frentiu said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cSo it\u2019s the power of such a snake that silently impresses you the most, along with its ability to expand when swallowing enormous prey, right up to the size of a cow, which is virtually impossible for most people to comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although they aren\u2019t naturally attracted to highly populated areas, python and other snake encounters are on the rise in places like Indonesia. The populations of typical prey like wild cattle and pigs are declining as habitats are destroyed. Meanwhile, python poaching continues to be a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope is for pythons and other giant snakes to no longer be seen as vermin, but rather as a symbol of the islands and necessary animals to the ecosystem,\u201d Frentiu added.<\/p>\n

The Baroness likely won\u2019t have to worry about any of that now, however. She\u2019s the lengthy new resident on conservationist Purwanto\u2019s estate, along with a number of other snakes rescued from similar situations.<\/p>\n

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Andrew Paul is a staff writer for Popular Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the Popular Science daily newsletter\ud83d\udca1 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A snake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3,79,17530,201],"class_list":["post-508544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-news","tag-science","tag-snakes","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}