Python joyrides around South Florida on sailboat from Keys

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. – A python looking for a joyride snuck aboard a sailboat successful the Florida Keys and ended up staying until the vessel finished its astir 100-mile voyage, constabulary said.

The unit recovered the 7-foot (2.1-meter) snake successful the boat's ablution aft docking Friday successful Marco Island connected southwest Florida's Gulf Coast aft the travel from Indian Key, a region of astir 95 miles (155 kilometers) astir the confederate extremity of the peninsula.

Police rapidly responded and transferred the invasive snake aft its joyride to a section wildlife handler, according to a constabulary quality release.

The constabulary section posted multiple photos of a uniformed serviceman grinning wildly connected the vessel with the python coiled aggregate times astir his arm.

In May, an “8-foot-long-plus” python was captured connected a vessel successful Coral Gables, the Miami Herald reported.

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Pythons believed to beryllium descended from pets freed from captivity implicit past decades are present ravaging autochthonal species successful parts of South Florida and overrunning the Everglades. The pythons, which tin turn to 20 feet (6.1 meters) and 200 pounds (90 kilograms), are devouring autochthonal mammal and vertebrate populations.

The U.S. Geological Survey says determination is nary grounds of pythons swimming from the Everglades to the Keys, but they didn’t regularisation it retired entirely.

“Because pythons regularly flight oregon are released from captivity, it tin beryllium hard to find whether a snake encountered successful the Keys arrived determination by swimming from the mainland oregon was a erstwhile captive favored connected the island,” the bureau has said previously.

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