While snakes are not a rare sight in Florida, an eighteen-foot Burmese python is.

On February 4, a massive 150-pound Burmese python was killed in the Florida Everglades by workers with the South Florida Water Management District.

The agency’s spokesperson Randy Smith says that it is not uncommon for the workers to come across snakes, and that it actually happens quite frequently. However, the workers were shocked to find one of this magnitude.

“Needless to say, when you get one this big, it raises eyebrows,” Smith said. “It’s just such a large animal. They have no predators. They’ll eat anything, even alligators. They are ferocious creatures.”

The men were working in a wooded area when the snake was discovered. They immediately called their python coordinator, who killed the snake with a shot to the head.

While pythons are not poisonous, they are capable of squeezing their prey to death, and have been wreaking havoc on Florida’s wildlife. So much so that Florida had a contest last year to see who could capture the most pythons. A total of 68 were turned in, some measuring as large as 14 feet.

Although the 18-foot python was mind-blowingly big, it is not the biggest that Florida has ever seen. In May 2013, a man noticed a python that measured 18-foot, 8-inches peeking its head out of the bushes in Miami-Dade County.

Image via Wikimedia Commons