16-Foot-Python Killed In Florida; Deer Found In Stomach (PHOTOS)

Officials in south Florida were in for a surprise last week when they cut open the belly of a 16-foot Burmese python they had captured and killed in the Everglades.

Inside the reptile they found a 76-pound, fully intact deer, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

According to the South Florida Water Management District, the snake, which was a female, weighed 215.4 pounds with the deer, and 139.1 pounds without it. The girth of the snake's stomach, stretched to accommodate the carcass, measured a whopping 44.1-inches. From head to tail, the reptile measured 15.65 feet.

GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW

CBS Miami reports it's one of the largest reptiles ever found in South Florida.

The Sun-Sentinel spoke to Skip Snow, a biologist and python specialist at Everglades National Park, who explained how the snake may have killed the deer:

From the Sun-Sentinel:

The python, an ambush predator, had staked out a known deer trail, he said. When the deer walked by, the snake presumably seized the animal in its sharp, backward-pointing teeth, crushed the deer under its weight and coiled around it, killing the deer before consuming it, he said.

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission used a shotgun to kill the snake in an effort to prevent the species from spreading north, according to LiveScience.

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia but are popular pets in the United States. According to the University of Florida, a 20-inch Burmese python can become eight feet within a year of captivity. This rapid growth leads inexperienced pet-owners to release the snakes into the wild when they become too big for their containers, where they reproduce and threaten the fragile ecosystem.

Between 2006 and 2007, 418 Burmese pythons were found dead or killed in Everglades National Park, reports the University of Florida.

In July, Jaren Hare and Charles "Jason" Darnell, a Florida couple, were found guilty in the death of Hare's 2-year-old daughter, Shaianna, The toddler was strangled in 2009 by a pet Burmese python that had escaped from its aquarium.

LOOK: 16-foot deer-eating python killed in south Florida (some photos graphic):

Comments

[blahblahblah30]

04:52 PM on 12/28/2011

not to sound horribly racist but they allow people from allover the world to reside here with very mixed results, give the snakes a break.

[nanaofmysky]

08:32 AM on 12/28/2011

I HATE SNAKES!!!!! They are NOT pets. Why people want one I will never understand. They are dangerouse to have around small children and animals. There are cases of them escapeing their enclosure and killing. People let them loose after they realize they are just to much for them to handle. Maybe there should be some place people can take unwanted snakes other than not getting them at all.

[Snakesrule]

01:29 PM on 12/28/2011

DOGS kill more people every year vs snakes, LOOK IT UP dont be so ignorant. There is no reason to ban snakes just because YOU are scared of them. How would you like it if i banned your starbucks because I dont like it. I LIKE having snakes why because with proper care they are easy to care for and dont poop on my floor, I never have to get up in the middle of the night to let it out and it dosent bark, also my inlaws are afraid of them so they stay away.

[blahblahblah30]

04:48 PM on 12/28/2011

i own a python and have for many years he is a great pet ,my son loves him, he doesnt grow more than 6feet, i think people should be able to take a course or pass a test before owning one. I HATE YOU AND OTHERS who hate snakes and like you said are ignorant to them and dont UNDERSTAND them. screw off, just think of how people are hurt by dogs, or horses. get a life fool.

[nanaofmysky]

07:34 PM on 12/28/2011

YOU ARE A VERY RUDE IGNORANT FOOL!!!!!!!!! YOU GET A LIFE IDIOT!

[no1homeboy]

11:12 AM on 12/26/2011

You know why a snake won't bite a lawyer?

Professional courtesy.

[Steven Schlosser]

08:01 AM on 12/02/2011

Big snake to be eating deer

[ericmiami]

08:27 AM on 11/05/2011

Give Sarah Palin a deer suit and a bowie knife. You betcha!

[Kelly Jade]

03:07 PM on 11/03/2011

I was just reading an article about people trying to give up their large snakes and having no where to bring them....

[scorpioleidy]

01:49 PM on 11/03/2011

Wow - that's amazing!!

[rezna]

12:57 PM on 11/03/2011

Seems like many HuffPost users haven't taken basic science class before?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species

[altollew]

12:55 PM on 11/03/2011

Question. " you won't believe what they found in the snakes belly" answer Jimmy Hoffa

[budweezer]

12:50 PM on 11/03/2011

That sucks... I was hoping it was the cast of Jersey Shore or the Kardashians in there.

[Kim0330]

01:28 PM on 11/03/2011

Lol, the snake probably had better taste than that....

[smwboxer]

12:32 PM on 11/03/2011

Yes they are invasive in the Everglades and need to be controlled. Banning the trade of boas and pythons across state lines is not the answer. These are tropical species that cannot survive winters in most of the US and are little threat to anyone or anything. Domestic dogs kill and seriously injure hundreds of people in this county every year. Why don't we hear people calling for banning them?

[Jakodpem]

03:55 PM on 11/18/2011

Banning the trade is the answer when the people can't take care of it anymore what do they do with it, they release it and the another is released then they mate and it gets carried away that is what exactly happened in florida

[Snakesrule]

01:04 PM on 12/28/2011

They are breeding in the wild dummy, stoping people from keeping them is not going to reduce the population.

[blahblahblah30]

04:49 PM on 12/28/2011

thank you , good points.

[littlemiss22]

11:40 AM on 11/03/2011

I don't think they used the best precaution, they could have just transported this reptile back to where it should be. Why do all living creatures have to suffer at the hands of HUMANS while many people see no need for these creatures the same could be said about so many humans amenlessly roaming the planet. some don't know what value a snake can have to the human life and what terminating them will do to our planet just because you don't like something doesn't mean it should be killed!!!!!!!

[Jacob Black]

12:26 PM on 11/03/2011

"they could have just transporte­d this reptile back to where it should be"

That's Burma.

[littlemiss22]

12:32 PM on 11/03/2011

Thank you! :)

[moonwolfph]

11:28 AM on 11/03/2011

The pythons are there because of the huge macho himbo population down there in Florida who use exotic animals as some kind of proof that their genitalia exists.
A shame for the magnificent Burmese pythons, who were probably smuggled here and obviously belong in BURMA.
Once again, Ominous Erectus acts as the quintessential Planetary PARASITE.
What a SHAME for the most MIRACULOUS planet in the known universe.
The human ego is the worst thing to hit the planet in it's history.

[fml71693]

01:23 PM on 11/03/2011

The human ego is the worst thing to hit the planet.. Not Hitlers killing of MILLIONS, not Saddam's bombings, Not world hunger, Not the black plague, Not you........ ego.. yah ok

[fsterpsycat]

01:48 PM on 11/03/2011

yes, fml, the human ego. if you look behind any one of the calamities you describe, chances are that you WILL find that the massive, cancerous human ego is behind or at the heart of the cause.

[moonwolfph]

05:34 PM on 11/03/2011

Those things were all the RESULT of those people's overblown egos. How can you miss that connection?
You don't throw people into ovens because you're MEEK and MILD-MANNERED - Duh.

[Ralph DeWitt]

10:53 AM on 11/03/2011

wonder why they had to kill the snake? was he bothering anyone?

[Telemachus]

11:00 AM on 11/03/2011

Actually, it was a "she", and yes, Burmese pythons are "bothering" the entire Everglades. They're an invasive species, just like sea lampreys and zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, Russian knapweed in Colorado, and kudzu vines all over the South.

What this country needs is a snake that eats kudzu.

[Snakesrule]

01:06 PM on 12/28/2011

your an invasice species also....

[Martin Miller]

11:17 AM on 11/03/2011

They are not native to Florida, so they are exterminating them to save the natural environment.

[fml71693]

01:23 PM on 11/03/2011

1000000 other ways to handle it...

[aphextwin07]

10:37 AM on 11/03/2011

wow, that thing is MASSIVE!!

[fml71693]

01:24 PM on 11/03/2011

thats what she said