A python hunting team in Puerto Rico has captured the longest reticulated python ever recorded alive on the island, a snake measuring 18 feet 4 inches long.
The capture came after the snake was spotted strangling a pet cat behind a house. It is not known whether the cat survived. The hunters tracked the python down a mountain and into the jungle after it left the scene.
Kevin Pavlidis, known on social media as Snakeaholic, worked with Proyectos Retic, a local group that hunts reticulated pythons and collects data and specimens on the species, to find and capture the snake. The animal was so large that eight people had to stand shoulder to shoulder to hold it up for photos.
“It took all my tracking skills and 20 minutes of searching to find this snake down in the jungle,” Pavlidis wrote.
“Removing this invasive apex predator is one more step towards restoring the delicate balance of the ecosystem out here in Puerto Rico and I am proud to be a part of this incredible conservation work!”
The reticulated python is not native to Puerto Rico and is considered an invasive species there, similar to the way Burmese pythons have overrun parts of Florida, where Pavlidis is based.
In a separate post, Pavlidis described the scale of the threat these snakes pose to the island’s wildlife.
“As incredible as these snakes are, they are an unbelievably large threat to the delicate ecosystem of Puerto Rico.”
He added that the blame lies with people, not the animal itself.
“It’s not the snake’s fault, this is yet another human error of introducing a non-native animal and @proyectoreticpr and I are doing our best to fix the problem other people created.”
