South Florida python hunter sets record with 17 foot snake

By Darrell Moody

python Image courtesy South Florida Water Management District

By Darrell Moody

The South Florida Water Management District is going to great lengths in an effort to rid the Everglades of invasive pythons.

Over the past few weeks, the district has been sharing photos and videos of python hunters with their catches.  As of August, more than 500 pythons have been removed from public lands.

One of those videos, shared this week on Facebook, appears to show a record breaking python harvested by a veteran python hunter.

Sssssseventeen Feet!

Python hunter Jason Leon set a record for the longest snake caught as part of SFWMD's Python Elimination Program with this 17-foot-1-inch Burmese python that he brought to the District's Homestead Field Station today. Leon's catch tops the previous high mark for the program of 16 feet, 11 inches established by Dusty "Wildman" Crum last month. Leon also holds the state record with an 18-foot-8-inch python he caught in 2013. Since SFWMD’s program started in late March, python hunters have eliminated 738 invasive Burmese pythons on District lands in Miami-Dade, Broward and Collier counties.

Posted by South Florida Water Management District on Monday, December 4, 2017

Jason Leon already holds a state record for the largest python captured and killed at 18-feet 8-inches.  Leon harvested that snake back in 2013.

At 17-feet 1-inch, Leon’s python is the largest snake killed in the district’s latest hunt.

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