Time is running out in 2026 for any Florida Burmese python hunter looking to top what Carl Jackson did in Big Cypress National Park this year. So where might they find the pythons usually spotted in Palm Beach County?
As of Sept. 24, Jackson still has the distinction of capturing the state's heaviest python in 2026, which was big news when he caught it in January. It's in the record books as the second-heaviest python caught in the Sunshine State.
The invasive snake, a female, weighed 202 pounds. It was 6 feet, 10 inches long, or about as long as former Miami Heat great Alonzo Mourning is tall.
Nine months later, no one has caught a heavier python despite a variety of elimination efforts going on in the state, including the Florida Python Challenge,
held for 10 days in July, and the monthly South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program.
Are Burmese pythons in Palm Beach County?
Palm Beach County is not a hot spot for Burmese pythons, but plenty have been found.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission contractors have removed at least 56 Burmese pythons from the county since January. The snakes were in the county's southern and southwestern wetlands, away from densely populated areas.
"It's been a few years since West Palm Beach was considered a hot spot for the snakes," Amy Kight, chief executive of Busch Wildlife Sanctuary in Jupiter Farms, told The Palm Beach Post in July. "Pythons tend to avoid people. There simply aren't enough comfortable pockets of habitat near urban areas to draw them in."
Burmese pythons are established just south of Lake Okeechobee down to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County.
What's the heaviest python ever caught in Florida?
The state record for heaviest python caught is a 215-pound beast caught in 2022. The invasive snake, a colossal female, was caught by Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists in the Everglades. It measured just under 18 feet long.
Jackson, who came from Utah to Florida to hunt pythons with his family. He said of his near-record catch that he spent some time wrestling the snake, which coiled several times and wrapped itself around him.
Jackson estimated the snaked dragged him 10-15 feet and over a red and black ant hill along the way before the struggle — all of it captured on video — finally ended.
On this day, a python hunter played cowboy.
"It was like riding a slow horse," Jackson said.
During the capture, Jackson said he needed to call on his "team" and "assistants" several times to get the snake uncoiled from his body. He was referring to his wife, Tasha, and his adopted children, Ryker Young, 20, and Jazzlyn Bateman, 16.
It was only the day before that all three of them became Jackson's certified assistants in the FWC's Python Action Team-Removing Invasive Constrictors program.
What happens to Burmese pythons caught in Florida?
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife, captured Burmese pythons must be euthanized humanely at the site of capture and cannot be transported alive.
While they are not protected in Florida, anti-cruelty law still applies.
Many methods are available to kill invasive pythons. Regardless of the method, two steps must be completed to kill a reptile humanely:
- The method should result in the animal losing consciousness immediately.
- The animal's brain should be destroyed by “pithing,” which prevents the animal from regaining consciousness.
What are the heaviest pythons ever caught in Florida?
Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists caught the heaviest Burmese python ever recorded in the Florida Everglades in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.
A 198-pound Burmese python was captured in November 2023 in the Big Cypress Preserve, making it the second-heaviest caught in the Sunshine State until Jackson's capture in January. That snake was 17 feet, 2 inches long.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: See Florida's heaviest Burmese python catch of 2026. Are the pythons in Palm Beach County?
