Florida Officials Say Captive Burmese Pythons Likely Released in Western Charlotte County

Invasive Burmese pythons have established a colony in a portion of western Charlotte County, Florida, north of Naples and Fort Myers, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. @ABC reported the development on July 11, 2026. The FWC began receiving increased python reports in 2020, primarily from the townships of Rotonda West, Placida, Englewood East, and South Gulf Cove.

A spokesperson for the agency stated there is no indication the animals arrived through natural migration and believes they were likely captive specimens that escaped or were released. Historically, Burmese python populations in South Florida were centered in Everglades National Park in Miami-Dade County.

The species later became established from Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and from western Broward County west to Collier County, the FWC said.

An estimated 180,000 Burmese pythons were brought into the United States between 1975 and 2018, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The species had formed a self-sustaining breeding population in the South Florida ecosystem by 2000.

Wildlife experts have been unable to estimate the total number of Burmese pythons in Florida because of low detectability, with success rates estimated at 1% to 3%. Detection frequency at Everglades National Park averages one python per eight hours of searching, the U.S.

"This is a generalist apex predator, and this is why we're so interested in removing them from the ecosystem," Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist and science coordinator at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples, told @ABC. Once established, the snakes decimate most mammal populations and leave a simplified ecosystem dominated by rodents and other invasive species, said Robert McCleery, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Florida.