Professional python hunters Guillermo Tapanes and Matt Kogo spotted something strange swimming in a remote pond on the border of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
It was too big to be a fish or iguana and didn’t move like an alligator. “It was moving quickly, leaving a wake, and had a bit of swish in its motion,” Kogo said. “So we start checking it out and we’re like, ‘It sure looks like it’s a python or some neurotic otter swimming circles.’”
They soon realized that there were two animals swimming, and they both seemed to be Burmese pythons. Though their observation has yet to be verified by wildlife biologists, Kogo and Tapanes are working with Burmese pythons specialists at the University of Florida to confirm the species.
If the snakes were indeed Burmese pythons, this would be the first time aquatic courtship behavior was documented in Florida.
The snake encounter happened Sunday, Jan. 4. Over the course of the next five hours that afternoon, other snake hunters gathered and watched the largest snake, which Kogo said was between 13 and 16 feet long, swimming from one end of the pond to the other, where groups of smaller snakes, presumably males, would follow her and attempt to get close.
“At one point we could see a total of six pythons swimming in the water together. What appeared to be the males would approach the female and then when they got to where they could contact her, she would duck down and pop up 20 yards away.”
If this kind of gathering had happened on land, it would make a certain amount of sense. January is breeding season for the invasive snakes in Florida, and the species is known to congregate in breeding balls on elevated levees and tree islands. Researchers have documented as many as eight snakes gathered together to breed.
Kogo suspects the swimming snakes were in a phase of courtship. “(The smaller snakes) definitely seemed like they were attracted to the movement, the wake the female was creating, and there had to be some sort of scent. … She was essentially doing figure eights in the center of the lake and when she would get one set of males attracted, she would kind of leave them and go to the other corner 300 yards away and bring in some (males) from there.”
He said the bigger snake was the center of attention. “That’s kind of what goes on in this early breeding season is the males are getting closer and closer to where the females are. One of our hunters, Anthony Flanagan, he likes to call it ‘advertising.’”
As the snakes swam, Kogo and Tapanes called in other hunters in the hopes that someone could intercept the snakes if they came ashore. But they never did. They even tried sending someone out in a kayak, but the snakes disappeared into the stained water as soon as the boat approached.
The snakes were still swimming as night fell and the hunters returned home.
“This is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen and the day is only marred by the fact that we had no way of grabbing them,” wrote hunter Tina Petty on Instagram.
On Monday, Kogo returned to the site and saw several python hunting trucks and even hunters on bicycles gathered at the pond. Though he’s frustrated that they didn’t catch any of the snakes, he said just witnessing potentially new python behavior is important.
“It’s something that we haven’t heard a lot about before — open-water courtship.”
Kogo hopes that any new knowledge of python behavior will help in controlling the population.
Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia and have grown to 19 feet in length in Florida, were introduced to North America by the exotic pet trade of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.
Over time, some escaped their owners while others were intentionally set free. Those snakes went on to reproduce and thrive in South Florida’s subtropical climate, decimating some ecosystems.
Areas of South Florida where the snakes have become dominant have seen a 90% to 99% decrease in sightings of mammal such as rabbits, opossums and raccoons. The snakes have been documented eating 6-foot alligators and 77-pound deer.
The invasive apex predators have expanded their reproductive range north from Everglades National Park to Lake Okeechobee and the suburbs of Fort Myers.
Kogo said the rural intersection of Broward and Palm Beach counties is vulnerable because there are large snakes there, and still a good number of large prey, such as raccoons, bobcats and deer.
“There’s still food for them in that area, which is why we’re working so hard. … You can see a bounce back of the mammals. You can see that the average snake size is getting smaller, meaning you’re capturing the older snakes.”
Bill Kearney covers the environment, the outdoors and tropical weather. He can be reached at bkearney@sunsentinel.com. Follow him on Instagram @billkearney or on X @billkearney6.