Giant Snake of the Everglades - The Invasive Burmese Python

- I'm Coyote Peterson, today I'm in the Florida Everglades, and I bet you'd never believe there's a 12 foot pythonright at my feet, but there is. Check this out. This is the Burmese python. (dramatic music) Today and the team and I are out walking the sawgrass fields of the Florida Everglades hoping to stumble upon what has become this ecosystem's notorious invasive alien, the Burmese python. And while it is estimated that thousands of these large constrictors have taken up residence here, they're incredibly difficult to find. and we had no luck coming across one naturally. The giant you are looking at herewas captured a few years ago in the same area, and is now being used as an educational ambassador to encourage inexperienced reptile lovers to think twice before deciding to get one of these snakes as a pet. This snake is about 12 feet long, and you can see why a python of this size would he quite the voracious predator out here in the Everglades. And what people really worry about is these eating some of the more threatened species like American crocodile hatchlings or the Key Largo woodrat. Their natural habitat is Southeast Asia. And in Southeast Asia a lot of these snakes are killed for their skins and sometimes for their meat. Now these snakes are just so well camouflagedin this Everglades environment, and you can be out here for days looking, and never find one. And that's why we wanted to bring one out so you can see just how well they blend into the surroundings. And you'll see how easily they can just kinda disappear. And this brown and yellowish coloring blends in perfectly with all this brown and yellow sawgrass. All right, now these snakes can grow to almost 20 feet in length. And this one is about 12 feet. And a way that pythons eat is by constricting their prey. So this is a non-venomous species, but they've got these hook teeth, and two rows of them on the upper jaw, so if this snake wants to,it can kinda latch down, and then it coils itself around quickly. And the way a constrictor kills its victimis to just keep squeezing and squeezing until the oxygen supply is cut off. What she's doing right now, flicking her tongue out, she's just smelling you guys. This is kind of a different experience for her working with cameras. OK, she's kinda close to my face right there. Sniffing me. Going for my hat, all right. Now if she starts to constrict, I would love to show you guys how these snakes actually--- [Chance] Say, "And now that is a python hat. " - And that's a python hat right there. (chuckles) Now this snake is used to being handled, so I don't really feel nervouswith her wrapped around my body. I would never recommend that you try to pick upa Burmese python if you see it in the wild. You know, it's best to just leave it alone. Obviously they're an invasive specieshere in the Everglades,so you'd wanna alert somebody if you did everencounter one out here. People get them when they're small, and they grow into these 12 foot giants. And then people release them into the Everglades. Unfortunately, when these snakes are now captured in the Everglades, they're immediately destroyed. Thankfully for this snake,she's gonna live for education. Such a cool, cool reptile. Now because these snakes are constrictors, their body can expand quite a bit, so if this snake ate something bigger than it, the skin would basically stretch, and it would take it a couple weeks to fully digest that meal. Now these snakes will never try to take prey as large as a human. And you don't need to be worried about running into this snakeand being constricted and eaten. Now the skin is actually really smooth. Some people think that snakes are slimy. Not the case. Very, very silky. You can feel all those little scales. I just rub my hand this direction. Or if you kinda go the other way, it feels exactly the same. And this allows these snakes to move so easily throughout the environment. Now being wrapped up with a python like thisis pretty cool. You can feel the weight. I mean, the snake is probably, I'd say probably close to 40 pounds. And just the muscle mass is incredible. And she's not constricting down very tightly on me,but I'll tell you what, if she wanted to, she could squeeze the life right out of this Coyote. I think we should try to see if we can hold this snake out. Maybe Melissa, Mark if you wanna put down your camera, we'll try to hold it all the way out so you guys can see how long this snake really is. You guys wanna try that? - [Mark] Yeah. - All right cool. - Ready?- [All] One, two, three. - Lift. And there you have it, that is a 12 foot Burmese python. You guys ever held a snake this big before? - [Melissa] No. - [Mark] Not me. (laughs) - Chance, you're missing out. Yeah. - [Chance] There you go. Now I have. - Wow, what a cool experiencewith the Burmese python. I wanna know what the biggest snake is that you guys have ever held, so leave me your snake stories below in the comments,and let's talk pythons. I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild, we'll see you on the next adventure. If you thought that was one wild adventure, check out these other animal encounters. And don't forget, subscribe to follow me and the crew on this season of Breaking Trail.