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Florida conservationists capture the state's heaviest £ 215 python

(CNN)She is huge, invasive, and scaled. A record-breaking 215-pound, 18-foot-long Burmese python was captured. In Florida.

Python is the heaviest captured state to date, andSouthwest Florida Reservewas announced Wednesday.

Giant reptiles were captured by the reserve as part of the Burmese python research program for invasive species.

Biologists found a woman by tracking a male "Scout Snake" named Dionysos with a radio transmitter. According to conservatives, males are attracted to the largest females. Therefore, by tracking breeding males such as Dionysus, they can find and remove large breeding females and their eggs.

Ian Baltshek, project manager for a reserve in southwestern Florida, biologist Ian Easter Ring, and intern Kyle Findley, before returning to the field track last December, had a giant female. I caught a python and euthanized it.

Bartoszek says he was unaware of the size of the snake until he weighed it in the lab. When she realized she was £ 215, she had "collective distrust" and she broke the previous record of £ 185 for the Burmese python captured in Florida.

However, it was April 28, a few months later, that biologists had the opportunity to perform an autopsy of the snake. They found that she broke another record: she had the highest number of eggs found so far, with 122 developing eggs in her abdomen.

Burmese pythons are endemic to Southeast Asia and are believed to be endangered due to overhunting.

However, since the 1980s, rebellious snakes from fleeing or wild pet trade have established a population in the Everglades, Florida. As an invasive species, the python threatens Florida's native animals, Balticshek told CNN. Florida officials take steps to minimize population, including holding a"Python Challenge"each year to see who can remove and kill the most pythons. I am taking it.

"There is no other everglades in the world," Bartoszek said. "It's a unique bioregion and a gem"-at risk by the invasive python.

Necropsy revealed the remains of a white-tailed deer hooves in the stomach of a 215-pound female python. This is one indicator of how pythons affect Florida wildlife. White-tailed deer is an important food source for the endangeredFlorida native leopard.

Python is "a generalist predator," says Bartoszek. "It doesn't discriminate."

Bartoszek says "eradication seems off the table" for now, but his team of three is by eliminating breeding females. He says he is working to reduce and control the Burmese python population. Over the last 11 years, we have eradicated more than 1,000 pythons weighing a total of 26,000 pounds from a small portion of the Everglades totaling approximately 100 square miles.

Dionysus, the scout snake that led scientists to record-breaking women, is said to be the "MVP-Most Valuable Python" of the season, Balticshek. He led the team to four additional female Burmese pythons that were euthanized and removed.

"We are not here for praise," he said. "We are here to raise awareness about this issue."

He said that scientists "have a great deal of respect for this animal. They are quite noteworthy. It's a seed. "

"We are on the side of science and are taking steps to protect the native fauna," Baltshek said.