Record 17-foot python (with 73 eggs) found in Florida

Yekiti Media

Officials at a South Florida wildlife preserve say they’ve captured the largest python ever found in the park. Officials discovered the female python, more than 17 feet long and weighing 140 pounds, on Friday in Big Cypress National Preserve.

A New Record and The Research Continues This female was over 17 feet long, weighed 140 pounds, and contained 73…

The python had 73 developing eggs.

Wildlife managers were using male pythons attached with radio transmitters to track down breeding females as they work to remove these invasive snakes.

Big Cypress National Preserve says on its Facebook page that one of the males was nearby the massive female.

As CBSN reported last year, captive Burmese pythons let loose by Hurricane Andrew’s destruction 27 years ago have flourished in the southern Florida ecosystem, decimating local species in the process. And now there are signs this stubbornly invasive species may be poised to make its way beyond the state’s borders.