FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission trapper caught a 17-foot python over the weekend.
Matthew Kogo wrangled the massive python in the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area near Fort Lauderdale, and it was caught on film by Kogo's wife.
"Gotta let her work," Kogo says in the video, referring to letting the python wear itself out. "As my Brazilian jiu-jitsu friends say. Gotta let 'em work."
Kogo switches hands while wrangling the python, so he doesn't wear himself out, he says in the clip.
In another clip posted to his Instagram account, he sits on the ground with the python, which is an invasive species, spending some "quality time" it.
"Spend some time with the serpent, before snatching it up and pulling it out of the Glades," he said.
Earlier this year, a 500-pound tangle of mating pythons was discovered in Collier County. One snake measured more than 16 feet.
Last year, a Tennessee man was named winner of Florida's annual Python Challenge, removing 20 snakes from the Everglades.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, pythons must be humanely killed on site once wrangled, and cannot be transported off site.
