Kevin Pavlidis captured an 18-foot-4-inch invasive reticulated python in Puerto Rico jungle after it was reported trying to eat a pet cat. He located the snake within 20 minutes of getting the report, then measured it after the capture.
He said the snake was the largest reticulated python ever caught and measured in Puerto Rico. Pavlidis later posted the record-setting catch to his YouTube channels.
Kevin Pavlidis on Threads
Pavlidis wrote on Threads that “as incredible as these snakes are, they are an unbelievably large threat to the delicate ecosystem of Puerto Rico.” He also wrote, “It’s not the snake’s fault, this is yet another human error of introducing a non-native animal and proyectoreticor and I are doing our best to fix the problem other people created.”
The size of the catch matters because reticulated pythons have established a breeding population in Puerto Rico. Larger females can lay 40 to 80 eggs in each clutch, and a large reticulated python can lay anywhere from 20 to 100 eggs at a time.
South Sulawesi Record
The Puerto Rico snake is smaller than the longest reticulated python ever measured, a 23-foot-8-inch snake dubbed The Baroness or Ibuan in the Maros region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The article also mentions unsubstantiated claims of a 32-foot-8-inch reticulated python from 1912, but Pavlidis’s catch stands as the largest measured in Puerto Rico.
Where in Puerto Rico the snake was found is not specified, leaving the hunt notable for its speed, its size, and the fact that it was already tied to a reported threat to a pet cat before Pavlidis arrived.
