Heaviest Florida Python Ever-By Far Conservancy of Southwest Florida researchers handle the 215-pound colossus. A necropsy found that it had not reproduced during the most recent breeding season, and its stomach was empty-otherwise, it certainly would have weighed more. According to a CBS News article published at the time, National Park Service and US Geological Survey interns who were working on python control got a little on-the-job training as they were allowed to handle the snake before it was euthanized “to help them gain confidence and experience.” The python weighed 133 pounds.

Researchers from the University of Florida who were searching for python specimens in the Shark Valley area of Everglades National Park in July 2015 captured an 18-foot, 3-inch female on a popular wildlife-watching trail. Shark Valley Super-Serpent University of Florida researchers show off the 18-plus-footer. The Biggest Python of Big Cypress Python Action Team members Cynthia Downer and Jonathan Lopez show off their 18-foot, 4-inch catch. The FWC, which documented the snake as the state’s longest at the time, noted the previous record-length python had measured 17 feet, 7 inches (see below). University of Florida scientists determined the 128-pound female was not carrying eggs. Ultimately, he was able to kill the massive predator with a knife. Leon gave chase after spotting only 3 feet of the snake’s body protruding from roadside cover, then called for help after the python revealed its full length and began wrapping itself around his leg.

The 18-foot, 8-inch female python captured in a rural part of Miami-Dade County by Jason Leon in 2013 reigned as Florida’s longest python for seven years until Pavlidis and Ausburn topped it in 2020. Snake Jason Leon hefts the coiled beast after a roadside battle University of Florida researchers put the python’s length in perspective. “Every python we catch can be potentially dangerous, but one this size? Lethal.” (F&S profiled Pavlidis and Ausburn in the feature story “Contract Killers,” which appeared in our Danger Issue.) 2. “I have never seen a snake anywhere this size, and my hands were shaking as I approached her,” Pavlidis wrote. In an Instagram post, Pavlidis-who has caught hundreds of pythons and uses the social media handle snakeaholic-called it “a once-in-a-lifetime” catch.

Working for a python-elimination program run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) and the South Florida Water Management District, the pair battled the 104-pound female in a canal about 35 miles west of Miami. The longest python ever captured in Florida-so far-is an 18-foot, 9-inch snake nabbed on October 2, 2020, by professional python hunters Kevin Pavlidis and Ryan Ausburn.

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