If you have a fear of snakes, stop reading, as wildlife conservators found 500 pounds of pythons tangled up in “mating balls” last month in Florida.
According to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, 11 Burmese pythons were found on Feb. 21 in three different breeding aggregations, also known as “mating balls.”
The pile of snakes contained one female snake and multiple male snakes, the agency shared, noting that it was a record daily capture for the conservancy.
The Burmese python is native to Southeast Asia and is considered an invasive species in the United States as they prey on over 72 species of animals in Florida, according to conservancy wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek, who spoke with NBC News.
“Burmese pythons are thought to be responsible for a 90% decline in native mammal populations across their established range,” the conservancy says.
The Burmese python is also one of the largest species of snake in the world, and conservators use the males tagged with radio transmitters as a way to find female snakes during the breeding season.
Once the conservancy is able to capture the snakes, they are euthanized, and genetic samples are taken to help further research, Bartoszek shared.
“It often feels like a ‘CSI’ wildlife crime scene in our lab during necropsies, and we frequently see firsthand how they are getting so large,” Bartoszek said. “We see the remains of white-tailed deer inside of pythons often. This should sound an alarm.”
The conservancy’s website shares that the species was first brought to Florida in the 1970s through the pet trade and has since become an “established apex predator across the Greater Everglades ecosystem,” the conservancy’s website says.
In southwestern Florida, Bartoszek shared that the conservancy has removed more than 1,300 of the snakes, totaling over 35,000 pounds.