MATT SEDENSKY
Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Scientists say they've caught the biggest Burmese python ever recorded in Florida.

The python weighed in at 164½ pounds and measured 17 feet, 7 inches long. It was pregnant with 87 eggs.

The snakes are native to Southeast Asia but have established a population of tens of thousands in the Everglades, where the latest find was recorded Friday.

It was euthanized and is being studied at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Authorities have taken repeated steps to try and reduce the python problem in the Everglades, banning their importation and allowing them to be hunted. But those efforts have done little to reduce the population. Their presence in South Florida is blamed, in part, by the release of snakes that people had kept as pets.

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Associated Press