177 pythons, four tons: Record 8,080 pounds of invasive Burmese pythons removed from Southwest Florida this breeding season
The Florida Everglades is one of the most extraordinary ecosystems on the planet, but for the last few decades it has been battling a slithering invasion.Even though Burmese pythons are snakes that belong thousands of miles away in Southeast Asia, they have spread through South Florida’s wetlands, swallowing native birds, mammals, and even deer, and leaving stretches of the wild empty.These snakes are quick breeders, hide brilliantly and have no natural predators here, which makes them one of the hardest invasive species whose numbers are being tried to be controlled.For more than a decade, a small team of biologists in Southwest Florida has been searching the swamp to work for the cause.But this year’s numbers have been like the biggest win for the team as the highest ever recorded.
Photo: conservancy.org
Florida’s python hunters just had their biggest captures this season
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida reports that it concluded its most successful Burmese python season on record. Across the breeding season running from November 2025 to April 2026, its biologists and volunteers captured 177 of the invasive snakes from a 200-square-mile stretch of Collier County, which in total weighed a total of 8,080 pounds. According to their official website, it is the “greatest biomass of invasive Burmese pythons removed in a single season by the Conservancy’s python tracking team and volunteers since the program began in 2013”.
The sheer size of these snakes is hard to imagine
The average female removed this season weighed 95 pounds, while the largest stretched 17 feet and measured 153 pounds on the scale. On average, each female carried around 70 eggs, and a quarter of them had the remains of white-tailed deer inside.
The team used smart tricks to catch hold of the pythons
The team used radio telemetry and 40 tagged male “scout snakes,” biologists follow the males through mating season to track down the big breeding females before they can lay their eggs.“This was our first four-ton removal season. Our tagged scout snakes helped us locate large breeding snakes deep in the landscape before they had a chance to lay eggs,” said Ian Bartoszek, the wildlife biologist and Conservancy science project manager who pioneered the program. This season alone, this planning kept an additional 4,100 python eggs out of the ecosystem.
The team has obtained favourable results over the years
Since the program began in 2013, the Conservancy says it has removed 1,750 pythons weighing more than 53,000 pounds, and contributed to 25 scientific publications on python biology and behaviour, working along with partners including the US Geological Survey and the University of Florida.Residents have a part to play too, as the Conservancy asks anyone who spots a python in Collier County to report it and to stay nearby until a responder arrives.
