Python sails from Florida Keys to mainland

A python looking for a joyride snuck aboard a sailboat in the Florida Keys and ended up staying until the boat finished its nearly 160-kilometer voyage, police said. The crew found the 2.1-meter snake in the boat’s shower after docking Nov. 12 in Marco Island on southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast after the trip from Indian Key, a distance of about 155 kilometers around the southern tip of the peninsula, police said. Police quickly responded and transferred the snake to a local wildlife handler, according to a police news release. The police department posted multiple photos of a uniformed officer grinning wildly on the boat with the python coiled around his arm. Pythons believed to be descended from pets freed from captivity over past decades are now ravaging native species in parts of South Florida and overrunning the Everglades. The pythons, which can grow to 6.1 meters and 90 kilograms, are devouring native mammals and birds. In May, an “8-foot-long-plus” (2.4-meter-plus) python was reportedly captured on a boat in southeastern Florida. (AP) This article was provided by The Japan Times Alpha.