--- title: "A 16-foot, 147.9-pound python was tagged and set free in the Everglades so drones can help track it" url: https://badiyaa.com/burmese-python-tagged-released-everglades-usgs-drones/ published: 2026-10-17T15:43:00+01:00 modified: 2026-10-17T12:17:35+01:00 section: Pets & Animals publisher: Badiyaa --- # A 16-foot, 147.9-pound python was tagged and set free in the Everglades so drones can help track it The female is a radio-tagged scout snake released around July for a USGS study, which is testing whether drones can find hidden pythons faster than crews on foot. The 16-foot Burmese python that has been circulating online this week was not let go by accident. She is a female weighing 147.9 pounds, and University of Florida interns released her back into the Greater Everglades after she was fitted with a radio tag, while U.S. Geological Survey biologists flew a small drone overhead. The aim, [according to the USGS caption](https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/using-suas-monitor-burmese-pythons-everglades), is to find out whether drones carrying radio receivers or cameras can locate tagged snakes faster and more cheaply than crews on foot. The release itself is not new. The agency dates the photograph to around July 2026 and described the drone trials in a [September 23 update](https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fort-collins-science-center/news/fort-science-action-2026-part-14-using-aerial-imagery) from its Fort Collins Science Center. What changed this week is that the picture spread widely, often framed as if Florida had simply set a giant snake loose. ## Why researchers put a python back Releasing an invasive predator sounds backwards, so it helps to know what this snake is for. USGS and its partners run a year-round “scout” program in Big Cypress National Preserve, where selected male and female pythons carry implanted transmitters and are tracked continuously by agency staff and interns from a University of Florida internship program. Scouts earn their keep in the breeding season. A tagged female draws males, so following her can lead researchers to a breeding group. That lets them remove more pythons, tag new recruits and find nests, whose eggs are collected for a separate study of how many young survive. One tracked snake can therefore lead to the removal of several others. The work also feeds questions nobody can yet answer, starting with how many pythons live in the Everglades. USGS says there are still no reliable population estimates. Published guesses run from at least 30,000 to more than 300,000, a tenfold spread. ## Why drones, and why now The problem is detection. Pythons spend most of the day hidden in burrows or water, and in one study even experienced reptile researchers spotted only about 1 percent of pythons held in a semi-natural enclosure. Tracking a tagged snake on foot through sawgrass and swamp is slow and can be hazardous for staff. A year before this release, USGS hydrologist Chris Holmquist-Johnson, a certified drone instructor for the Department of the Interior, trained Fort Collins scientists working in the Everglades to fly the aircraft. Those researchers are now using drones to follow pythons. USGS says the radio-tracking drones are meant to locate snakes more often while improving efficiency and staff safety, but it also says this only matters if the method proves workable in the Everglades’ complex habitat. No results on how well it works have been published yet. ## How big is a 16-foot, 147.9-pound python? Bigger than most. Florida Museum material puts the typical Burmese python at 6 to 9 feet, so this female is roughly twice the length of an average adult. In metric terms she is about 4.9 meters and 67 kilograms. She is still short of Florida’s biggest recorded python, 18 feet long and 215 pounds; at 147.9 pounds she carries about 69 percent of that weight (147.9 divided by 215). Size matters for a breeding female. A typical female breeds every other year, and USGS has documented clutches from 11 to 111 eggs. Pythons in Florida have been linked to sharp declines in raccoons, opossums and bobcats, and USGS researchers spent 2024 monitoring five scout snakes with National Park Service biologists to measure how often they eat deer. Removal alone has not solved the problem. About 100 contractors hunt pythons year-round, and the state’s annual Python Challenge can draw more than 1,000 people. In 2023 it removed 209 pythons with 1,050 participants, about one snake for every five hunters. That is why scientists want better tracking tools rather than just more hunters. ## If you see one Burmese pythons are tan with dark blotches along the back and sides. They are not venomous. Take a photo, note exactly where you are and report the sighting to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission through its Exotic Species Hotline. The scout snakes themselves stay in the study: the 147.9-pound female is now one of the tagged pythons the drone trial is trying to follow. ## Further reading - [USGS: Invasive Burmese python research in the Greater Everglades](https://www.usgs.gov/centers/fort-collins-science-center/science/invasive-burmese-python-research-greater-everglades) - [Wikipedia: Burmese pythons in Florida](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_pythons_in_Florida) *Image: Bryan Falk, USGS, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*