In the chronicles of the natural world, Harriet is an evolutionary success story.
For Florida, the nearly 13-foot-long Burmese python is an ecological nightmare.
Called the “most interesting Burmese python on the planet” by scientists who have followed her in the southwest reaches of the state since 2019 she is a marvel of fecundity, a reproductive machine that outpaces her peers in an unwitting competition to conquer a foreign landscape.
In a landmark study on python fertility published in the journal Reptiles & Amphibians, Harriet defied the conventional understanding of how often a female python can lay eggs, producing six clutches of offspring over seven reproductive cycles.
Traditionally, it was thought pythons reproduced on a biennial or even triennial basis.
Higher rates of reproduction mean more pythons to battle in a war against the relentless invasive species that Florida has waged in earnest for more than a decade.
“Harriet gives us a more complete understanding of what an adult female Burmese python is capable of,” said Ian Easterling, a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and co-author on the study. “Information from this long-term research animal will help inform population models and help aid management efforts.”
How invasive Burmese pythons invaded Florida
The Burmese python invasion began with releases — intentional or not — of captive snakes, which likely gained a foothold in Everglades National Park by the mid-1980s, according to Florida Python Control plan.
Fifteen years later, multiple generations of pythons were living in the park, and while not venomous, they had assumed a “top position on the food web.”
In a 2012 study, it was estimated that pythons were responsible for a decline of 85% to 100% of the population of medium-sized furry animals in the park.
Haphazard pursuits attempted to cull the expanding herd and in 2017 the South Florida Water Management District began paying contract hunters hourly wages and bonuses to find and kill the snakes. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a similar program that partners with Inversa, a Miami-based leather manufacturer that turns the python skins into high fashion wallets, boots and belts.
In 2021, the FWC made Burmese pythons a prohibited species.
By then the pythons had gained such purchase in the River of Grass and the more densely forested southwestern part of the state that there is no hope of complete annihilation.
“You really can’t make this up. It feels like a combination of a science fiction novel and Carl Hiaasen book,” said Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist and science coordinator for the conservancy. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and it still amazes me each season what we are seeing coming out of the woods.”
1,700 Burmese pythons weighing 26 tons removed by Conservancy
Since 2013, the conservancy has implanted radio transmitters in captured pythons called “scout snakes” and released them back in the wild. The scout snakes then lead the researchers to female pythons during breeding season.
Conservancy biologists and volunteers have removed more than 1,700 pythons weighing 52,000 pounds from an approximately 200-square mile area in southwest Florida.
They’ve also found them snacking in chicken pens. One was caught slithering across a driveway near Naples with a bulge in its gut that turned out to be an unlucky duck. Another was scooped up by stone crabbers swimming 15 miles offshore after 2017’s Hurricane Irma.
“This is how you start to push back,” Bartoszek said about python removal efforts. “We are pulling them out hand over fist where we can.”
Bartoszek co-authored the python reproduction study that featured Harriet. It was published in November 2025.
“The superpower of this animal is they can put on incredible size rapidly,” Bartoszek said about Burmese pythons.
And females are considered “capital breeders” meaning they eat a lot during a specific feeding season and live off their fat reserves during breeding season. A female python can lose 35% to 40% of its total body mass during a reproductive cycle. That is thought to put so much strain on a female’s body that they can’t recover fast enough to produce eggs in multiple consecutive years.
Harriet bucks that theory.
Harriet was initially found by following a male scout snake named Luther.
She was one of three snakes tracked during the study. One snake was attacked by an alligator and humanely killed. Another was euthanized to allow scout snakes to pursue other females.
Bartoszek said all of Harriet’s eggs were collected and most were not allowed to hatch. Others were used in a hatchling tracking study, but none survived to adulthood.
Pythons usually lay their eggs in late April through May. Bartoszek said scientists are eager to see if Harriet has another clutch this year.
“Harriet is a special snake, she’s a survivor and she’s helping us understand the pythons true reproductive potential,” Easterling said.
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Why this Florida python raises new alarm about invasive spread
Reporting by Kimberly Miller, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
