Biggest Burmese Python Ever Caught In Florida.....

The 18ft 8in specimen - captured and killed by one man using just a knife - sets a new record for a python caught in the wild.

 

A Burmese python measuring nearly 19ft has been captured in South Florida.

About 3ft of the 18ft 8in (569cm) snake was spotted sticking out of some roadside brush on May 11 by Jason Leon and some friends, as they drove late at night through a rural area of southeast Miami-Dade County.

The 23-year-old got out of his car, grabbed the snake behind its head and dragged it into the open.

When the snake tried to wrap itself around his leg, he called to his friends for help and then used a knife to decapitate the 128lb (58kg) specimen.

"I was pretty exhausted and I didn't want to get bit," he said.

He once owned Burmese pythons as pets and knew how to handle the snake, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The previous record was a 17ft 7in python caught in August in the Everglades National Park.

The female snake was not carrying any eggs, University of Florida scientists said.

Mr Leon has agreed to donate the skeleton but has been promised the skin, which he plans to tan and put on his living room wall.

A more moderately sized Burmese Python caught in January

Pythons are an invasive species in Florida, where researchers believe they are eating their way through populations of native mammals in the Everglades.

A public snake hunt earlier this year yielded 68 of the snakes - the longest measuring more than 14ft.

Roughly 1,600 people - mainly amateur hunters - signed up for the state-sponsored Python Challenge.

No one knows exactly how many pythons there are, but the population likely developed from pets released into the wild.

Florida now prohibits owning or selling pythons for use as pets, and federal law bans importation and interstate sale of the species.