A South Florida snake wrangler captured the largest reticulated python ever measured in Puerto Rico after getting a report that the invasive snake was trying to eat a pet cat.
Here's what to know
Known online as "Snakeaholic," Kevin Pavlidis and team members went looking for the python after hearing the snake had been seen strangling a cat. After tracking the snake into the jungle, they located it in about 20 minutes, Pavlidis told The Cool Down, as also detailed by BroBible. The record-setting catch was later posted on his YouTube channel.
The crew measured the snake on camera, confirming a length of 18 feet, 4 inches. Another image from the scene shows eight people posing while holding the python up.
For comparison, the longest measured reticulated python on record was a 23-foot, 8-inch female called "The Baroness," or Ibuan, from the Maros region of South Sulawesi in Indonesia. BroBible also mentioned an unverified 1912 report of a 32-foot, 8-inch reticulated python.
More background
Pavlidis said he and his hunting partner, Proyectos Retic (@proyectoreticpr), are working to shrink the invasive population on the island. The name essentially translates to Project Retic, short for reticulated.
Proyetos Retic got a call about a python strangling a cat, Pavlidis said, and "We drove there as fast as possible, but the python was nowhere to be seen" as the homeowners had managed to scare it away to save the cat.
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He continued: "I went off into the jungle using all my years of python tracking skills and it took me 20 minutes to track the python down. When I finally found it I could only see a few inches of white skin on its chin, but I knew exactly what I was looking at! I knew it was big, but I didn't realize how big it was until we wrestled it all the way back to the street and measured it."
Puerto Rico's reticulated python problem has drawn comparisons to South Florida's Burmese python crisis because both involve large constrictors breeding outside their native range. BroBible noted that although Burmese pythons are the invasive snakes most closely linked to South Florida, reticulated pythons are considered the world's longest snake species.
"I've spent the last nine years of my life mastering finding invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, and have developed the reputation of being the best python hunter in Florida," Pavlidis said. "When I learned about the invasive reticulated python problem developing in Puerto Rico, I was excited to take on a new challenge learning to master a new species and its behavior.
"I was also very happy to offer my skills to help the people and wildlife of Puerto Rico. Catching invasive snakes is all about saving native wildlife animals since the native animals are eaten by these invasive predators."
What's being done?
In a post on Threads, Pavlidis said the snakes are a major threat to Puerto Rico's delicate ecosystem.
While Puerto Rico is much smaller than Florida, at about a 15th the size, the python problem may already be too established to realistically remove every invasive python. Still, Pavlidis said that doesn't make a removal any less worthwhile.
"To the best of our knowledge, the bulk of the population started around 25 years ago and they have been breeding and slowly expanding their range to further and further parts of the island," he said. "We are doing our best to slow the spread as much as possible.
"... The population is still relatively small, but if we don't keep working hard to remove them, it could easily become as serious of a problem as Florida. One thing that is different in Florida is that the Burmese pythons in Florida mostly live in the swamp and rarely show up in people's houses. In Puerto Rico the reticulated pythons show up in people's houses very often, especially if people have a chicken coop or any other pets the pythons could eat."
BroBible noted that Florida's standard response is humane capture and dispatch so invasive pythons cannot continue breeding. Large reticulated pythons can lay 20 to 100 eggs, and bigger females often produce clutches of 40 to 80. Removing one breeding-age snake can help slow the rapid population growth seen in invasive python populations elsewhere.
"As incredible as these snakes are, they are an unbelievably large threat to the delicate ecosystem of Puerto Rico," Pavlidis also said, per BroBible. "It's not the snake's fault; this is yet another human error of introducing a non-native animal."
Where can I learn more?
Puerto Rico isn't the only place dealing with invasive species.
• Florida biologists used scout pythons to remove a record 8,080 pounds of invasive snakes.
• During Florida's annual hunt, teams removed 294 snakes in 10 days and barely slowed the invasion.
• Florida scientists gathered critical new data to sharpen efforts against Burmese pythons.
• On Spain's Ibiza, invasive snakes advanced like a battle front through fragile island habitat.
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