Last week, a video of a massive Burmese python crossing the street in the Everglades National Park in Florida went viral. Many people interested in the park noticed the striking footage, and snake experts provided new information regarding the snake's identity.
Kymberly Strempack Clark recorded the incident and uploaded it to her Instagram account, @kym_clark. While Clark's GPS directs her in the right direction, the enormous snake can be seen slithering across a tarmac road in the video.
Clark told Newsweek that she never saw a snake that big in the wild, particularly a python. Clark and her two friends, Tippy Prescott and Lu Behrens claimed that they were approaching the snake from across the road.
Slithering Snake
Behrens said they weren't sure what it was, but then they realized it was a Python because it was moving slightly. The snake turned around and moved back to the side of the road, and then they stopped and drove up to it. Using a smartphone app, Behrens measured the python to be approximately 15.2 feet long. Luis Garbayo, a snake hunter, believes it may have been larger.
Garbayo measured the road at 21 feet. With kinks and curves, the snake is folded in half at an angle. She would almost certainly be able to cross the white line if it were perfectly straight. It is 10.5 feet from the middle of the road to the white line. As per Garbayo's calculations, the snake should be between 8.5 and 9 feet long when folded in half and 18 feet when stretched out.
That cannot be proven, but Prescott said that the snake was too long to be shot in one go when it unfolded, saying that she could not seize the whole thing with her limited lens. Given that male pythons typically only reach about 14 feet, the enormous size of the python suggests that it is a female. Based on the size of her head concerning the rest of her body and the lumpy shape of her body, Prescott added that a snake expert had informed them that this female was "loaded with eggs."
Photo of the Burmese python slithering off the road in the Everglades.
Burmese Python in Wild
Between December and April, Burmese pythons typically mate. The females will lay their eggs in late spring after gestating for 60 to 90 days. In a typical clutch, females carry around 36 eggs, according to the University of Florida, but in June, an 18-foot female was found with 122. Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia and are one of the world's largest snake species.
They are an invasive species in Florida and are regarded as a threat to native wildlife, despite being classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in their native habitat. In 2000, the first reports of established populations of the snakes, which are thought to have originated as escaped or released pets, were made in Florida. Due to their enormous size, the snakes have few predators.
However, they prey on native species, including those that may be endangered or in danger of extinction, and compete with these animals for food. The state Wildlife Commission recommends notifying them as soon as people spot a Burmese python in the wild in Florida. Behrens mentioned they called the WFC and emailed them a location on the map to assist in locating the snake as soon as the python had slithered away.
RELATED ARTICLE: Florida's Annual Burmese Python Hunt to Massacre Hundreds of Invasive Snakes Next Week
Check out more news and information on Animals in Science Times.
