The researchers found the snake by using male pythons with radio transmitters to locate breeding females.

“The team tracked one of the sentinel males with the transmitter and found this massive female nearby,” the preserve said on Facebook.

“I wish we could eradicate this species, but I think they are established,” said Cheryl Millett, the manager of the Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve in central Florida, who led a “Python Patrol” program to try to control the snake’s population. “One of the problems with the Burmese python is that it’s an invasive species getting in the way of the area’s natural functioning system. That is why we are trying to eradicate it.”

Burmese pythons can grow to about 23 feet and are native to South Asia. They found their way to Florida decades ago through people who imported them as pets. Many owners underestimate how large the python will grow, and sometimes they let the snakes loose when they can no longer take care of them. Female pythons have the ability to lay 100 eggs, and the snakes multiply quickly.

That has led the python to threaten the biodiversity of the Everglades. The mammal and bird populations in the Everglades began to decline around the time that pythons started to proliferate in the area, according to a 2012 article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.