A group of Florida hunters have captured the second-largest snake to ever be caught in the state.
Conservationist Mike Elfenbein ventured out into Ochopee’s sprawling 729-acre Big Cypress National Park last week with his 17-year-old son, Cole, in an effort to capture predators that had been impacting the native wildlife.
That's when the father and son duo came across a gargantuan Burmese python - and a struggle between man and beast ensued.
As reported by WPLG 10, another local man in a pick-up truck had stopped in order to help Mike and Cole, but the huge beast soon started dragging the man towards a nearby canal. Fortunately, a group of hikers who were fortunate enough to be in the area also rushed to their aid, and the team battled the sizable snake for a further 45 minutes.
Elfenbein also told Field & Stream: "Even with five guys on top of her, she was able to lift us off the ground and keep moving."
"I grabbed [the snake] by the head, which was the size of a football," 45-year-old Elfenbein told WPLG 10. "I stretched her in one direction, my son stretched her in the other, and the other three guys jumped on top of her."
"If the five of us weren't here, we wouldn't have caught her," the father added. "We happened to be in the right place at the right time."
The group then posed for photos with the snake, with Elfenbein writing on Facebook: "A new personal best, Officially 17’2” & 198 pounds. This snake ate a lot of native wildlife to get this big. 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 Florida Wildlife Commission has since confirmed that the giant Burmese python is the second largest to ever be caught in the state.
The longest snake to ever be caught in Florida measured 19 feet, but weighed just 125lbs. Meanwhile, the heaviest snake to ever be caught in the state weighed 215lbs - both of which were captured last year.
Snake hunters in Florida often venture into the wilderness in an attempt to capture creatures that pose a threat to the ecosystem and local wildlife. As Elfenbein explained: "A python this big likely consumed a lot of our deer and rabbits and all the other little furry critters we love to see here in Florida."
Speaking to CBS News, the dad described the python as "a monster”, adding: "It was more than a snake."
NBC 6 Miami has since reported that, after the python was autopsied, the remains of a deer was found in its stomach.
Elfenbein added that while much of the snake's carcass will be preserved for future scientific research, one of the men has opted to keep the beast's skull as a "trophy" of sorts.
A comprehensive review of pythons living in Florida was published last year, and showed that although little is known about how long Burmese pythons live in the Floridian wild or how often they reproduce, their hatchlings can be as long as two-feet. It also revealed that more and more of these pythons are migrating north.
The review also described the state's python issue as "one of the most intractable invasive-species management issues across the globe."
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