(NewsNation) — You have, of course, heard of embellished fish stories, but this snake story is the real deal.
A 22-year-old snake hunter in Florida captured a record-breaking 19-foot-long Burmese python, one of the longest snakes of its kind the state has ever seen.
“I’ve dealt with big pythons before, but when I saw this one, it absolutely blew me away,” Jake Waleri said Friday as a guest of “On Balance With Leland Vittert.” “It had an attitude and was striking at me and my friends for several minutes before we got a hold of that head.”
The capture took place in the vast Everglades National Park, where invasive pythons have been wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem.
Florida allows the hunting of these deadly snakes in an ongoing effort to control the population, which originally escaped from people’s homes.
These snakes, lacking natural predators in the region, have multiplied rapidly, posing a significant threat to native wildlife.
The danger associated with handling such large pythons was not lost on Waleri. He emphasized his two main concerns: the snake’s striking capabilities and the potential for it to wrap around him.
“I’m really thankful I had my friends with me and another fellow hunter who came by and immediately started tugging on that tail as soon as I got the head,” he said. “Because that snake wasn’t able to get the leverage that needed to get around my throat to start wrapping.”
Waleri’s quick actions prevented any harm during the snake’s capture.
“That head striking at you, those big gnarly teeth — that’s quite the danger,” he said. “And once you do grab that head, you have to worry about it wrapping up on you,”
Waleri said his mother thought “it was a little crazy at first” when he took up the “hobby” of snake wrestling.
Inspired by the television show called “Guardians of the Glades,” Waleri and his cousin spent over a year attempting to catch their first python before finally finding success.
Waleri said he now plans to donate his trophy snake to science for research purposes and use its 19-foot-long skin to create a wall mount, commemorating the capture.
“I bet you there’s 20-footer out there somewhere,” he said. “The Everglades is a big place.”
