A python measuring over five meters long was captured in the Everglades, Florida.

A Florida python snake hunter caught a specimen measuring 17 feet and one inch - over five meters - in the Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, the previous week, and the astonishing moment of the capture was caught on camera.

Matthew Kogo, a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), found the snake in the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area.

One of the videos shows Kogo firmly holding the head of the python while it wriggles.

On his social media, the expert hunter explains how he manages to tire the huge snake out and avoid danger himself. "You have to let it work. Like my Brazilian jiu-jitsu friends say, I have to let them work," he jokingly states.

"Do you see how I change hands?" he says to the person recording the unusual scene. "This way I don't get tired, letting the snake get tired. See? This is a good girl."

In another reel, Kogo is seen sitting on the ground with the reptile coiled around his legs. As he recovers from his "struggle" with the animal and catches his breath, he advises: "Spend some time with a snake before catching and removing it from the clearing. It's a quality moment."

Experts quoted by the WBBH television channel, an affiliate of NBC, consider that it is no coincidence that the capture of the python occurred during hurricane season, as "higher temperatures, constant rains, and humidity can make invasive snakes more visible in residential areas."

"The pythons and other snakes are ectothermic, so they prefer to be active when it is warm and humid. They are tropical snakes," noted Dr. Andrew Durso, wildlife biologist and professor at the University of the Gulf Coast of Florida.

The Burmese python snake is a constrictor species, native to the Indomalayan region in Asia, and it is believed to have been introduced to Florida by people who kept them as pets and, due to their extraordinary growth, released them into the Everglades National Park, causing a problem for native species.

The invasive pythons can reach up to eight meters in length and wreak havoc on the native wildlife in that ecosystem in southern Florida, even going as far as devouring alligators. They have reduced some mammal populations by up to 90%, according to FWC. They have no natural predators in the Everglades.

That is why, every year, Florida celebrates a competition to eradicate that invasive species from the Everglades. The Florida Python Challenge 2024 will take place from August 9th to 18th.

In November 2023, a group of python hunters trapped the second-largest snake ever caught in Florida that is on record in the Everglades. It measured 17 feet and two inches, weighed 198 pounds, and required five men to control it.