NAPLES, Fla. - A team of biologists recently hauled in the heaviest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, officials said.

The female python weighed in at 215 pounds, was nearly 18 feet long, and had 122 developing eggs, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in a news release.

The team used radio transmitters transplanted in male "scout" snakes to study python movements, breeding behaviors, and habitat use, said Ian Bartoszek, wildlife biologist and environmental science project manager for the conservancy’s program.

"How do you find the needle in the haystack? You could use a magnet, and in a similar way our male scout snakes are attracted to the biggest females around," Bartoszek said.

The team used a scout snake named Dionysus — or Dion for short — in an area of the western Everglades.

"We knew he was there for a reason, and the team found him with the largest female we have seen to date."

RELATED: Registration opens for Florida Python Challenge, effort to protect Everglades: The cash prize you could win

Biologist Ian Easterling and intern Kyle Findley helped capture the female snake and haul it through the woods to the field truck.

A necropsy also found hoof cores in the snake’s digestive system, meaning that an adult white-tailed deer was its last meal.

National Geographic documented the discovery, highlighting the continued impact of the invasive pythons, which are known for rapid reproduction and depletion of surrounding native wildlife.

Bartoszek said removal of female pythons plays a critical role in disrupting the breeding cycle.

"This is the wildlife issue of our time for southern Florida," he said.

Since the conservancy’s python program began in 2013, they’ve removed over 1,000 pythons from approximately 100 square miles (25,900 hectares) in southwest Florida.

Over that stretch, necropsies have found dozens of white-tailed deer inside Burmese pythons. Data researchers at the University of Florida have documented 24 species of mammals, 47 species of birds and 2 reptile species from pythons’ stomachs.

Prior to the recent discovery, the largest female removed through the conservancy’s program weighed 185 pounds (84 kilograms) and was the heaviest python captured at the time in Florida, officials said.

The state’s python removal program runs for two weeks in August. Participants compete for prizes, including $2,500 for capturing the most pythons.

Last year’s challenge involved more than 600 people from 25 states.

Damn!

I've watched some of those shows where they capture these snakes live and put them in a bag to take back to someone they are selling them to? For the life of me I can't figure out why they don't just shoot them on the spot to carry them out rather than wrestle with them . All I can figure out is it makes better television to see them risking their lives to capture these monsters... although watching some of those morons get bit a couple times is pretty humorous at times...

And why only a two week season if they truly want to get rid of them?

That makes the Texas snakes look small. Any data on movement toward the Miss. delta?

Too cold?

Heard they were showing up around Charlotte!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😉

Florida is so fugged up. What a disaster these snakes are.

Clearly, south Florida needs a bigger infestation of wild hogs. Sure a snake that big could eat a wild hog or two, but my money would be against it ever getting big enough to be anything but a snake flavored licorice stick if there were enough hogs around.

At least it's not Minneapolis.

Or Portland.

The invasive snake population stayed in check due to the hog population for decades.

Then they decided to plant Texas Cougars in South Florida and the explosion of the Cougar population went ballistic to the point wild hogs are becoming rare beasts.

The Python population has flourished as a result.

Using a male "scout" snake to lead them to large females, that's cool!

Hunting pigs south of I-75 around the Glades for the last 25 years.
Watched the population of hogs go from plentiful to all but non-existent while the Cat population became so plentiful that you see them every time you go out and their tracks are everywhere.

How much time do you put in down there Dan?

Lived in Mountain Lion country most all my life.
You have a hell of a lot more than a couple hundred of them around for people to be making videos in broad daylight of cats acting like that.

That makes the Texas snakes look small. Any data on movement west toward the Miss. delta?

That makes the Texas snakes look small. Any data on movement west toward the Miss. delta?

This one is really special..quick kill of the family puddy cat.

This is what you end up with when they overpopulate, disease sets in and it can kill them all.

They been sticking to that couple hundred number for years now.
Whatever it takes to keep their 'save the panther' program alive.

It's a multi-million dollar industry cheerfully supported by tax payers that don't get off the roads to see what's happening.

They just catch occasional headlines and media releases and see it as some sorta noble gesture.

What we got is more like a infestation of cats and snakes.

Those pigs were the only predator that feasted on those huge snakes.

The only predator the cats have is other cats which happens to be the leading cause of death for them today here, over population leads to more territorial fighting.