Man Wrestled and Killed a 18ft Python in Florida - Facts Analysis

Story:

A Miami man briefly wrestled with and ultimately used a knife to kill a Burmese python measuring 18 feet, 8 inches.

That sets a state record for pythons captured or killed in the wild. The previous record measured 17 feet, 7 inches.

Picture: Man Wrestled and Killed a 18ft Python in Florida — Man Wrestled and Killed a 18ft Python in Florida

Analysis:

Picture messages claim to show a 18 foot Burmese Python thought to be wrestled and killed by a man in Florida. Yes, it is a fact.

23 Year old Jason Leon of Palmetto Bay in Florida city was traveling around with couple of his friends on 11 May 2013, when one of them spotted a snake poking its head out of a roadside brush near Southwest 373rd Street and 167th Avenue. Leon, being a part-time marine biology student at Florida International University and a former owner of pet snakes, jumped off his ride and caught hold of the python behind its head, dragging it into the roadway. To his surprise, it was a much bigger Burmese Python than what he thought. Leon said that he had to wrestle with the python for about 10 minutes before he was forced to reach for a knife and kill it.

Picture of Jason Leon with the Burmese Python — Jason Leon with the Burmese Python

“I’m actually really mad I had to kill it. But at one point it coiled around both of my legs and my waist, and I wasn’t going to take a chance on letting that thing get to my neck.”

The Burmese Python was later handed over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which measured the giant snake to be 18 feet, 8 inches long, a female weighing 128 pounds, and not carrying any eggs or preys at the time. The people shown to sleep beside the giant python are in fact state wildlife workers. The last picture in the image section below is Jason Leon holding onto the giant Burmese Python. As mentioned in the message, this is a record-setting Burmese Python found in Florida, the previous longest one in Florida was caught in August 2012, when a pregnant snake was captured in the Everglades region, measuring 17 feet, 7 inches in length and weighing 165 pounds.

About Burmese Pythons

Burmese Pythons are one of the largest snakes on earth, native to the jungles and grassy marshes of Southeast Asia. They can grow up to 23 feet (7 meters) or more in length, weighing up to 200 pounds (90 kilograms), with a girth as big as a telephone pole. Interestingly, they are also excellent swimmers, and can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes before surfacing for air.

Burmese Pythons are nonvenomous constrictor species which grasp a victim with their sharp teeth, coiling around their bodies and then squeezing them until they suffocate to death. So people are advised NOT to try handling or capturing these snakes.