Python Q&A series: How long does it take for a hatchling to grow to adult size?

Mark H. Bickel, Fort Myers News-Press
·1 min read

Note to readers: The Naples Daily News and the News-Press have partnered with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida for a series of Burmese Python Q&As that we will publish throughout 2024. Ian Bartoszek, the Conservancy's Environmental Science Coordinator, is our go-to expert to help us understand these massive beasts better.

Q. How long does it take for a hatchling Burmese python to grow into an adult?

BARTOSZEK: Conservancy biologists have tracked about 100 hatchling pythons in the wild. Surviving animals grew to adult size at over 7 feet in length within three years of age.

Biologists perform a necropsy on a large female Burmese python at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wednesday, April 26, 2023. The python was found as part of an effort to rid Southwest Florida of the invasive snakes. The concept involves releasing males with radio transmitters, which then find females. The males are radio tracked by the biologists, where they hopefully find large females with eggs that are then removed from the wild. The program is 10 years old. They have removed over 1,000 pythons and over 30,000 lbs. of snakes in those 10 years.

Have a python question for Ian?

What question do you have about pythons in Southwest Florida? Email mbickel@gannett.com and we will put your question in front of Ian Bartoszek.

More links to our python coverage:

Q&A: Does the cold affect pythons?

Q&A: Get to know Burmese Pythons: Q&A to help you better understand invasive Florida snake

Heading north?:Invasive pythons in Florida: Just how far can these snakes slither up north?

Behind the scenes:Invasive pythons in Florida: Just how far can these snakes slither up north?

Famous hunter: 'My office is the Everglades': Florida woman gave up real estate job to hunt Burmese pythons

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Pythons in Florida are considered adults when they are seven feet long