‘Communal’ python nesting site on Florida island had dozens of eggs, video shows
The pursuit of invasive Burmese pythons in South Florida led to the alarming discovery when four females were captured at a “communal nesting” site on an island, according to video shared on YouTube.
“Four giant pythons” and more than 40 eggs were collected within minutes, the video posted Aug. 7 shows.
Mike Kimmel, known as the Python Cowboy on social media, called the find “ground breaking” in multiple ways, including evidence that the females were returning to the same spot to build new nests atop older nests.
The site was littered with broken eggs from python broods that had hatched in previous years, he said.
“This hunt was next level. ... What we thought was just one nesting python turned into something we’ve never seen before: Four big pythons, 3 active nests, and a female still full of eggs,” Kimmel wrote on YouTube.
“All in the same sawgrass head. It was chaotic, intense, and one of the most important finds of the season. And to top it off, one of those snakes stretched over 15 feet long. These invasive breeders are wiping out native wildlife, and finds like this prove just how urgent our work is out here.”
The expedition was done in cooperation with Old Row Outdoors, and all the snakes were wrestled from their nests to be euthanized in accordance with state law. The clusters of eggs were also collected and frozen to prevent them from hatching.
Invasive Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, but the snakes made their way to Florida in the 1970s via the exotic pet trade. In the past 25 years, “more than 23,000 wild Burmese pythons” have been removed from the wild in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That includes 294 captured this year during the state’s annual Python Challenge hunting campaign.
However, Kimmel notes this has been “one of the craziest years” the state has had for nesting and breeding. A single female can lay between 50 and 100 eggs at a time, the FWC reports.
“I think a big part of it has to do with this (summer) drought. These pythons can hold seed and wait for the perfect time to nest. And I think this drier weather has contributed to that. We’ve never found communal nesting like we have this year. ... Normally, that, like, never happens,” Kimmel says in the video.
His team has removed “hundreds of nesting pythons this season,” but Kimmel says that’s “just scratching the surface”in the Everglades. Many of the snakes were caught with the help of a python-tracking dog named Otto, who died not long after this massive find when he was struck by a car during another hunting expedition.
This story was originally published September 2, 2025 at 7:30 AM with the headline "‘Communal’ python nesting site on Florida island had dozens of eggs, video shows."