Jason Leon has broken the South Florida Water Management District’s record for the largest Burmese python taken in its Python Elimination Program. His giant snake measured 17 feet, 1 inch in length and weighed 132 pounds, but it’s how he took the snake that’s even more impressive.
Leon was hunting with friends in Big Cypress National Preserve last Friday around 2:45 a.m. He spotted the python, a female, submerged with a smaller male python close by. Leon grabbed the female, then held on while he shot it in the head.
Both the male and Leon escaped unscathed.
“That snake could pretty much kill any full-grown man,” Leon said later. “If that snake was alive right now, it would probably take like three of us to be able to control that snake.”
The serpent bested the Python Elimination Program’s previous record, set last month by South Florida’s Dusty Crum, by two inches. Under the program’s payment structure, Leon and his friends will receive $375 for the kill—$8.10 per hour, a $50 bonus for a snake longer than four feet, and an additional $25 for every foot after that.
Leon’s snake didn’t break Florida’s overall record, but no matter; he also holds that record for an 18-foot, 8-inch python killed in 2013.
Photo: South Florida Water Management District
