[ Animals ] Enormous Burmese python killed in Florida Everglades was about to lay 60 eggs

[FRIDAY THE 13]

 

 huge Burmese python has been caught in Florida with a clutch of 60 eggs that were "just days from being laid." 

Hunter Mike Kimmel captured and killed the 16-foot-long (5 meters) snake in the Everglades, where the invasive species has been wreaking havoc on local ecosystems for decades. 

"A python this size can eat anything in the Everglades, as I've proven with the multiple adult alligators I've rescued from being eaten by pythons (3 separate times)." Kimmel wrote in an Instagram post after the catch.

A huge Burmese python has been caught in Florida with a clutch of 60 eggs that were "just days from being laid." 

Hunter Mike Kimmel captured and killed the 16-foot-long (5 meters) snake in the Everglades, where the invasive species has been wreaking havoc on local ecosystems for decades. 

"A python this size can eat anything in the Everglades, as I've proven with the multiple adult alligators I've rescued from being eaten by pythons (3 separate times)." Kimmel wrote in an Instagram post after the catch.

One of the reasons the po[CENSORED]tion is difficult to control is the number of offspring they produce. Burmese pythons mate in spring, with each sexually mature female laying up to 100 eggs about three months after mating. After the eggs are laid, the female coils around them to incubate them for six to eight weeks, until they are ready to hatch. A study published 2016 found the number of Burmese python eggs that go on to successfully hatch was 77%.

In 2022, researchers caught the biggest Burmese python ever found in the Everglades — an 18-foot-long (5.5 m) behemoth weighing 215 pounds (98 kilograms). It carried 122 egg follicles — spherical structures that mature into eggs after fertilization. 

And in April this year, a team led by the U.S. Geological Survey caught a python that had laid 96 eggs in one go — setting a new record for Florida, New Scientist reported. 

 

https://www.livescience.com/animals/snakes/enormous-burmese-python-killed-in-florida-everglades-was-about-to-lay-60-eggs