Miami: A homeowner in South Florida made a startling discovery as he was cleaning out his shed on Sunday night.
Much to his surprise, the homeowner in Hileah found a 13-foot (3.96 metres), 100-pound (45.35kg) albino Burmese python as it was devouring a cat’s skull.
The homeowner reported the slithering beast to the city, which quickly sent authorities to come retrieve it.
It took five rescuers to safely carry the python out of the shed.
The homeowner, who is missing one of his three cats, witnessed the snake gnawing on a feline skull when he made his chilling discovery, CBS News reports.
“Speaking with the neighbours, apparently there’s a couple of rabbits and a cat missing from the neighbourhood recently,” Lieutenant Lisa Wood of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Venom Unit told the news station, “so the snake may be to blame for that.”
Wood said she believes the python had escaped from somebody’s home, since albino snakes rarely survive in the wild.
The snake left behind a giant load of its own skin, indicating it had been in the homeowner’s shed for some time.
Burmese pythons have been a continual problem in South Florida, according to the Huffington Post, especially in the Everglades, where their population of 150,000 threatens the local ecosystem.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission held a Python Challenge earlier this year, encouraging locals to hunt and kill the giant snakes while offering rewards for the most and largest ones caught.
Those who participated captured 68 snakes in total.
Months later, Jason Leon of Hileah snagged the largest python ever caught in Florida, which was reportedly 18-feet and 8 inches (5.68 metres), according to the Huffington Post.
