On June 22, 2022, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced they captured a 215-pound female Burmese Python in the Everglades National Park. The python is about 18 feet long, and is the heaviest Burmese python ever caught in the state. A male python called Dionysus (which is also the name Greek god of wine and revelry) was fitted with a radio transmitter and led the biologists to the large python. Male pythons, are somehow attracted to the largest female pythons. Native to Southeast Asia, Burmese Pythons were first brought to the U.S as exotic pets. The reptiles were kept in a large stronghold in the Everglades around the time Hurricane Andrew struck, taking down the facility and releasing all of the pythons into the Everglades. The reptiles have a tremendous ability to reproduce and Florida officials have long given up trying to eradicate the invasive animals. Instead, they focus on curtailing their spread with various methods, including using python “scouts” like Dionysus and snake-sniffing dogs. The state also holds an annual “Python Challenge.” The two-week-long competition invites both experts and amateurs to hunt down as many snakes as possible for prize money.

In 2021, the competition helped remove 223 Burmese pythons from the Everglades. Some further research found out that the snake was carrying 112 undeveloped eggs, the most ever found in a female’s breeding cycle. The biologists found evidence for an adult white tailed deer inside the python’s stomach. The deer are an important food source for the critically endangered Florida panthers that call the Everglades home. The Burmese Pythons as invasive species have destroyed many ecosystems in the Everglades.