'That's A Big Snake': 16-Foot Python Captured On Florida Family's Property

ZOLFO SPRINGS (CBSMiami/AP) – It took two cousins and a lot of muscle to capture of a 16-foot, 300-pound Burmese python spotted slithering on their Central Florida property.

Aaron Brown told Fox13 that he was recently driving down the street near his home in Zolfo Springs when he spotted the large snake, the station reported on Wednesday.

"I drove past it and said, 'That's a big snake.' I had my mother with me and she said, 'Well, get out and get it.' I said, 'You get out and get it. If that joker catches me, you can't help me,'" Brown told the television station.

Brown called his cousin, William Wilkinson, and the two of them, along with Wilkinson's son, Hunter, worked to hook and shoot the snake after it moved into a culvert.

"Once we got him pulled out, it was like, 'My God! What a snake!'" Wilkinson said.

At about 16 feet and 300 pounds, the python was the largest reported snake to be found in the area.

Wilkinson said that the family had never seen anything that big in the woods surrounding their property in Zolfo Springs, which is southwest east of Tampa.

After capturing the snake, the family called Dustin Crum, a local snake hunter, who took the snake. Crum said he found 100 eggs inside the animal while he was skinning and examining it.

Crum said he was working to make sure pythons are not migrating north of the Everglades and hopes that this was a "rogue snake."

The cousins are now keeping an eye on the area for any other wayward pythons.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the pythons are the most concerning invasive species in the Everglades that have established a breeding ground in South Florida.

"These boys stopped an invasion by eliminating a big breeding snake like that," Crum said.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)