Teen fights with 15ft, 100lb python in Florida: ‘Things have gone crazy’
His house at Hogwarts would certainly not be Slytherin.
A Florida teenager was praised Sunday for bagging a giant, 15ft 6in python on his first-ever trip to the state’s southernmost Everglades National Park.
The reptilian-fighting rock star, 18-year-old Fort Meyers resident Jack Cronin, had only one thing to say after impressively capturing the monstrous Leviathan.
“I was like, ‘That’s a big snake,'” Cronin said CBS4 Miami aptlywhich reported that the Python weighed more than 100 pounds and was longer than an SUV when unfurled.
“That was my first Python I ever jumped on. I caught small snakes — that was my first python I’ve ever seen,” he added.
Even scarier for the recent high school senior who had python hunting on his wish list, it turned up in the middle of the night.
“We walk over and there’s just a snake head the size of my head. I shone my flashlight back through the woods to see the body but couldn’t even see the end,” said Cronin, now a freshman at the University of Central Florida. “Then of course I’m like, ‘I want to jump on it.’ So I jumped on it, grabbed his head, then the thing went nuts and it became a wrestling match.”
Needless to say, the python had a slight height advantage over the 5’7″ teenager; Regardless, Cronin called his Man vs. Nature win “an adrenaline rush like no other.”
Why exactly did an adolescent go to war with a predatory basilisk in the middle of the night?
The state sanctions Florida Python ChallengeNaturally.
It’s an annual competition where both pros and “newbies” can win $10,000 and other cash prizes to incentivize the removal of the ecosystem-damaging beasts from the Sunshine State.
But no need to worry: online training Is necessary.
Unfortunately for Cronin, his main award didn’t count towards the competition as he and his crew missed the mandatory weigh-in by five hours.
Either way, he’s thrilled to be returning to the swamp.
“We’re definitely going to be back out there trying to get another big mama.”
