Snake Wrangler Catches Record-Breaking 18-Foot Python in Puerto Rico After It Targets a Pet Cat
People who experience ophidiophobia (a fear of snakes) may want to avoid heading to Puerto Rico anytime soon. It was just announced that a snake wrangler beat Puerto Rico’s record recently when he captured a nearly 19-foot-long reticulated python.
Kevin Pavlidis, who goes by the handle Snakeaholic on Instagram, shared a photo from his record-breaking catch on Oct. 19. In the picture, eight adults had to stand shoulder to shoulder while holding up the snake. Pavlidis said that he didn’t capture the beast alone, either. He also gave credit to proyectoreticpr, who he says helped him in his quest.
Now, his record-breaking find is going viral as he explains why Puerto Rico is trying to rid itself of the snakes in the first place, and how he is working hard to help restore balance to the island’s ecosystem.
Man Stops Massive Python From Eating a Pet Cat
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According to the post, the 18-foot, 4-inch snake was attempting to strangle a pet cat behind someone’s house when Pavlidis was alerted. He says he then rushed to get to the house to begin hunting the reptile. “It took all my tracking skills and 20 minutes of searching to find this snake down in the jungle,” he explained.
“I have been working extremely hard in Puerto Rico learning to understand how this species behaves, and they are shockingly different from Burmese,” he added, explaining how these snakes are invasive to Puerto Rico the same way that Burmese pythons are in Florida. As such, he’s working with conservation groups to help remove them so that native wildlife can continue to thrive.
Commenters Were Curious About the Process
A lot of people in the comments defended the snake, wanting to know why it had to be killed in the first place, prompting Pavlidis to respond. “State law provides very few options for what we can do with these snakes,” he explained. “Reticulated pythons are labeled as a ‘Prohibited Species,’ so it is now illegal to keep them as pets in Puerto Rico.”
Pavlidis went on to explain that it is also illegal to transport them within or off of the island, which leaves euthanasia as the only viable option for controlling the population.
According to SerpentResearch.com, the reason these snakes are so dangerous to the local ecosystem has to do with their large appetites. To satisfy their hunger, these snakes are eating a lot of birds in the area, including some that use the island as a stop along their migration path.
The website notes that these birds are also very important to ecosystems, since they help control insect populations, creating a domino effect where other animal or insect populations could grow out of control. Fortunately, it sounds like there’s a team of conservationists working on removing the snakes using the American Veterinary Medical Association’s guidelines for reptile euthanasia, although the specific euthanasia methods used in this case have not been independently verified.
