200-Pound Burmese Python Wrestled Out of Florida Everglades in Near-Record Capture
Late on the afternoon of January 13, a routine turnaround on a remote Everglades road turned into one of the most extreme python removals Florida has ever seen. Carl Jackson, a contracted Burmese python hunter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was driving along Turner River Road in Big Cypress National Park around 4 p.m. when he noticed something unusual crossing the dirt.
“I saw two snake tracks right across the road going over my truck tracks,” Jackson said.
At first, the tracks didn’t raise alarms.
“They were small, like a mountain bike tire,” he said. “I thought maybe we had a 5-to-8-foot snake.”
That assumption lasted only minutes.
From “Gravy” to a Full-Scale Fight
Jackson followed the tracks into the brush where pythons often shelter. What he saw next instantly changed the equation.
“I go in and walk around and I see a head,” he said. “Gravy.”
The size of the snake’s head told him this was no average python. What followed was a violent, exhausting wrestling match that would involve three members of his family and end with the second-heaviest Burmese python ever recorded in Florida. The female python measured 16 feet, 10 inches long and weighed an astonishing 202 pounds. Only one heavier python, a 215-pound specimen captured in 2022, has ever been documented in the state.
“It was insane,” Jackson said.
Dragged Through the Swamp
The fight was anything but quick. Jackson said the snake coiled repeatedly around his body, at one point dragging him an estimated 10 to 15 feet across the ground, directly over a red and black ant mound.
“It was like riding a slow horse,” he said.
Video of the encounter shows the python repeatedly wrapping itself around Jackson as he struggles to control its head and body. During the fight, Jackson called out repeatedly to his “team” his wife and two children, who rushed in to help uncoil the massive snake and secure its head.
A Family Operation in the Everglades
Assisting in the capture were Jackson’s wife, Tasha, and his adopted children, Ryker Young, 20, and Jazzlyn Bateman, 16. Remarkably, all three had become certified assistants in the state’s Python Action Team, Removing Invasive Constrictors (PATRIC) program just one day earlier. The family relocated from Utah to Florida in June, leaving behind their previous life to pursue full-time python hunting in the Everglades. Jackson, who was born and raised in Utah, said the idea took hold after watching a Discovery Channel program on python hunters.
“I applied several times in the past,” he said. “Last year I applied again, and when they told me I lived in Utah, I said, ‘If you hire me, I will hitch up my trailer and head down there.’”
He did exactly that.
One of Florida’s Top Python Hunters
Jackson was hired as a contracted python hunter in 2025. Since then, he has removed 91 Burmese pythons from the Everglades. Last year, he also captured one of the longest pythons ever recorded by a contracted hunter, a 17-foot, 10-inch snake weighing 153 pounds. This one was different.
“We got the snake bag and couldn’t get half of her in,” Jackson said. “She was shorter than my 17-foot-10 snake, but three to four times around. A 26-inch girth is unheard of.”
For context, Jackson weighs 152 pounds.
200 Eggs and a Bigger Win for the Ecosystem
A necropsy of the python revealed no recent meals no deer, rabbits, or other native wildlife.
“It was all just her,” Jackson said.
More importantly, the snake was carrying approximately 200 eggs.
“That means 200 potential deer eaters and native animal killers removed,” he said.
Invasive Burmese pythons have been established in South Florida for more than two decades and now occupy over 1,000 square miles. Adult pythons commonly reach 10 to 16 feet and are known to decimate native mammal and bird populations.
The Day Wasn’t Over Yet
After transporting the massive snake to be weighed, measured, and prepared for taxidermy, Jackson plans to mount the head on a wooden plaque, the family returned to the capture site. They weren’t done.
“We went back and caught a 10-foot-1-inch male,” Jackson said.
What Happens to Captured Pythons
Under Florida law, Burmese pythons must be humanely euthanized at the site of capture and cannot be transported alive. While the species is not protected, anti-cruelty laws still apply, requiring immediate loss of consciousness followed by destruction of the brain.
A Near-Record Moment in Florida Wildlife History
Florida’s python records continue to climb as hunters encounter larger, older, and more established snakes:
• Heaviest ever: 215 pounds (2022)
• Second-heaviest: 202 pounds (this capture)
• Longest ever recorded: 19 feet (2023)
For Jackson and his family, the January 13 capture stands apart. It wasn’t just a record, it was a reminder of how deeply entrenched this invasive species has become in South Florida, and how physical, dangerous, and personal the effort to remove them truly is.
