BIG CYPRESS NAT'L PRESERVE, Fla. – Some industrious python hunters just bagged one of the biggest snakes ever caught in Florida.
It took five guys to pull the female Burmese python out of the swamp in the Big Cypress Nat’l Preserve on Friday night.
Mike Elfenbein said he, along with his son Cole, Trey Barber, Carter Gavlock and another experienced hunter were blown away when they took a closer look at her.
This mother of all snakes was more than 17-feet-long and weighed 198 pounds.
That is the second heaviest snake ever officially caught in Florida.
Elfenbein said they found remains of a deer in her stomach, including hooves and bones.
In June 2022, a 215-pound python was caught in Southwest Florida.
As for this monster, Elfenbein wrote, “She ate her last meal! It took five of us to control her, glad to have removed her from our Everglades where she can no longer eat our wildlife.”
The long-time Florida sportsman is the Executive Director of the Cypress chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, which is a national conservation organization.
Elfenbein said the chapter’s work eventually resulted in the creation of the preserve.
He has been receiving messages of congratulations from fellow hunters since bagging this beast.
“We were definitely not prepared for a python this big,” he said. “Until you’ve got your hands around one like this it’s hard to comprehend.”