Monster Burmese python caught by 3 hunters in Florida. Was it biggest ever captured?

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Monster Burmese python caught by 3 hunters in Florida. Was it biggest ever captured?

Three hunters recently

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in the Florida Everglades.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, Jan Gianello and Justice Sargood caught the invasive snake near Everglades City just after midnight on May 31.

The constrictor was so large that Hoffman had to get a ******* tape measure.

“At first we measured with a 15-foot tape measure that we had lying around, and it wasn’t long enough,” Hoffman said. “Then I took a measurement with a 25-foot tape. When I read the number out loud we couldn’t believe it.”

First identified in Everglades National Park in 2000, 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 may be the most destructive foreign animal in the park’s history.

The

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

can grow to more than 18 feet and weigh over 200 pounds.

Did the trio’s catch break the record for the longest python ever captured?

Here’s what to know about the behemoth catch and the biggest pythons ever caught in Florida:

Python Challenge 2025 registration now open

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for the 2025

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

— a 10-day event to remove invasive 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 — is open.

This year’s hunt runs from July 11 to July 20,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

announced May 15.

Participants can win money 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 in several categories, including a $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

works with partners and the public to 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, including the annual Florida Python Challenge.

Python Challenge 2025 dates: When does hunt start, how long does it last?

The 2025 Florida Python Challenge starts at 12:01 a.m. July 11 and ends at 5 p.m. July 20, Florida Fish and Wildlife announced May 15.

What prizes can hunters win in the Florida Python Challenge?

There are $25,000 in cash prizes up for grabs for this year’s hunt.

The top prize of $10,000 goes to the person who catches the most pythons. Those with the most catches in the Novice, Professional and Military categories win $2,500, while runners-up in each group receive $1,500, and $1,000 is awarded for the longest pythons caught.

Can you shoot Burmese pythons in the Florida python hunt?

There is no established firearm season during the time of the event. The 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 during the competition is prohibited.

What do they do with pythons caught in Florida?

Burmese pythons captured in Florida

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. While they are not protected in Florida,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

still applies.

Step 1: The method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately. These tools should result in the immediate loss of consciousness:

Firearms (not allowed in the Florida Python Challenge and otherwise subject to property-specific and local rules) or pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air guns

Step 2: The animal’s brain should be destroyed by “pithing” which prevents it from regaining consciousness.

Burmese pythons must be killed in a humane two-step process that ends in the snake’s brain and brainstem being destroyed after it is rendered unconscious.

Where in Florida are Burmese pythons? How far north do they go?

The invasive snakes are distributed across more than a thousand square miles in the Everglades and southern Florida. Burmese pythons have been

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

and are

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. They

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

3 men catch giant Burmese python in Everglades. How big was it?

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

From left to right, Jan Gianello, Zach Hoffman and Justice Sargood pose with the 16 foot, 8 inch female Burmese python they caught near Everglades City on May 31, 2025.

At 12:30 a.m. on May 31, Zach Hoffman, Jan Gianello and Justice Sargood were on their way home from an uneventful night of

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

when they decided to check one last spot and spotted a huge Burmese python ‘laying halfway on the road, half in the ditch.”

Sargood grabbed the python’s head and wrestled with it, while Hoffman and Gianello controlled the rest of the snake’s body to keep it from coiling too tightly.

➤ ‘We couldn’t believe it’:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Once they had control over the large python, it was humanely euthanized.

They attempted to measure the snake with a 15-foot tape measure, but it came up short. A 25-foot tape measure did the trick, and the hunters determined the massive python to be 16 feet, 8 inches long. The hefty snake weighed 105 pounds.

Longest Burmese python ever recorded was caught in Southwest Florida

A group of python hunters caught

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

on July 10, 2023, in the Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County.

The monster

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

18-foot pythons captured in Florida, Everglades

The previous

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

was held by python hunters Ryan Ausburn and Kevin Pavlidis who

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">

Python elimination hunters Kevin Pavlidis, left, and Ryan Ausburn nabbed a record-breaking 18-foot, 9-inch python.

In 2013, Jason Leon

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in southeastern Miami-Dade County. The massive snake weighed 128 pounds.

Licensed

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Mike Kimmel, alone on a spoil island in the Florida Everglades,

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in 2020.

Heaviest python ever caught in Florida

Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists caught

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

in November 2023 in the Big Cypress Preserve, making it the second-

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

ever caught in the Sunshine State. The massive snake was 17 feet, 2 inches long.

Support local journalism by 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Monster #Burmese #python #caught #hunters #Florida #biggest #captured

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up