Man grabs 17-foot python near South Florida levee, has bite marks and photos to prove it

With bite marks to prove it, a Homestead man caught a whopper of a Burmese python Monday night in Miami-Dade County.

Kyle Penniston set a record for a python caught through the South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program, grabbing a 120-pound snake that measured 17 feet, 5 inches.

Penniston’s hands were swollen from the female snake’s bites during his catch. 

More:Incredible stories about python appetites, epic battles and friendships

“She started wrapping me while I tried getting her up the levee,” Penniston wrote on a Facebook post.

He lost his grip, then reached out for his pistol, which jammed.

“I kept fighting till we were both dead of energy,” he posted.

Penniston is part of a team of professional python hunters the water district pays to hunt the invasive species in Collier, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Depending on the size of the snake, hunters can receive additional payments, according to the water district.  

Hunters have eliminated 1,859 pythons, stretching a combined length of more than 2 miles and collectively weighing more than 11 tons, according to the water district. 

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Python Removal Contractor Program also manages a program to fight the spread of the large snakes. Pythons already have decimated native wildlife populations in the Everglades ecosystem, scientists say.

Invasive species:How Floridians, from spearfishers to scientists, are fighting back

And:Florida officials aim to prevent python-like spread of other non-native wildlife

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