A professional snake hunter had his hands full earlier this month, as he grappled with the second-heaviest Burmese python ever caught in Florida.

Carl Jackson, 43, was dragged 10 to 15 feet over red and black anthills by a 202-pound Burmese python, the Naples Daily News reported.

“It was like riding a slow horse,” Jackson told the newspaper about the Jan. 13 encounter with the reptile, which is an invasive species. “It was insane.”

The record for the heaviest Burmese python caught is 215 pounds, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That snake was trapped in 2022, the agency said.

Jackson, who is a full-time, contracted Burmese python hunter with the FWC, was locked in a struggle in the Everglades with the 16-foot, 10-inch female, which had been carrying 200 eggs.

“That means more to me because that is 200 potential deer and native animal eaters (that were eliminated),” Jackson said.

“Locked” is a mild term. Jackson said the snake “coiled” itself around his body several times after he discovered the reptile in the Big Cypress National Park and attempted to humanely kill it.

Jackson’s team -- including his wife, Tasha, and two adopted children, Ryker Young, 20, and Jazzlyn Bateman, 16 -- helped uncoil the snake.

According to USA Today, Jackson’s family members became certified assistants one day earlier in the FWC’s Python Action Team, Removing Invasive Constrictors program.

Jackson moved to Florida from Utah last year to hunt pythons. During that time, he has eliminated 91 of them. That includes a 17-foot, 10-inch reptile that was among the longest ones caught by contracted hunters.

According to the FWC, Burmese pythons have contributed to the decline of small mammals in Florida, including raccoons, opossums, bobcats, foxes, marsh rabbits and cottontail rabbits.

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