• Outdoors Outdoors

Man bare-hands a 15-foot Burmese python in the Everglades before it starts wrapping around him: 'Absolute behemoth'

"Anytime you find yourself to be holding a large wild animal of any kind, you need to have a plan."

A man in a field captures a large snake at night, demonstrating wildlife handling skills.

Photo Credit: Reddit

Footage posted to Reddit from the Everglades has sparked both fascination and concern, showing a man confronting an enormous Burmese python by hand.  

The snake looks to be roughly 15 feet long, and at one point, part of its body gets around him before he is able to kill it.

What happened?

Shared to the Reddit forum r/florida, the video shows a dangerous encounter with one of South Florida's best-known invasive animals.

(Click here if the embedded video does not appear.)

The man can be seen taking hold of the huge python with his bare hands as the snake slithers through a patch of grass next to a road.

During the struggle, the animal starts to coil onto him, highlighting the strength a snake of that size can bring.

Why does it matter?

Burmese pythons are not native to the Everglades.  

Their presence is widely tied to human activity, particularly the exotic pet trade and animals that were either released or escaped.  

Once established in the region, they became devastating predators in an already fragile ecosystem, putting pressure on native mammals, birds, and reptiles.  

A giant invasive python roaming the Everglades is already a major ecological problem; a person trying to wrestle one alone with bare hands adds another layer of risk.  

Encounters between humans and wild animals often become more dangerous when people alter habitats, move species around, or underestimate the animal in front of them.  

What are people saying?

Reaction in the comments leaned more toward concern than admiration.  

One experienced python hunter wrote, "That is also an absolute BEHEMOTH ... biggest I've ever caught is like 10.5'."  

"I'm a Florida native who grew up in the woods and swamps and then worked as a land surveyor for 25 years … anytime you find yourself to be holding a large wild animal of any kind, you need to have a plan. This guy did not have a plan," cautioned another user.

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