Hunters find 2 python ‘mating balls,’ but with an odd twist, Florida video shows
A team of hunters searching for invasive Burmese pythons in Florida’s Everglades stumbled upon two suspected “mating balls,” but with a mysterious twist.
In both cases, the piles of snakes consisted of males only, according to professional hunting guide Mike “Python Cowboy” Kimmel.
That led him to conclude something a bit haunting: The mating balls might have been struggles for the attention of a larger female python hiding in the shadows.
If that’s the case, she watched as her suitors met their doom.
“This is nuts, y’all. ... I think there’s a big female in the area and I got to find her, son,”Kimmel said in a video posted June 9 on the Python Cowboy Hunts Facebook page.
“Usually when these snake get together to breed, it’s more than just two and they have themselves a little bit of a python orgy.”
Ultimately, the female eluded capture, suggesting she will soon nest and produce eggs, he said.
But the guided hunt was still a success, with a father-and-daughter team capturing five males, one of which was exceptional, Kimmel said.
“A giant 14-foot male with half of his tail missing,” Kimmel says in the video. “This is the biggest male I have ever caught. Generally, they don’t get quite this large and this one’s definitely impressive.”
It’s likely the male had its tail bitten off by an alligator, he said.
The other male pythons were around 10 feet long.
Florida state law calls for invasive Burmese pythons caught in the wild to be humanely euthanized, due to the impact the species is having on the ecosystem and native mammal populations.
Python mating mounds are rarely seen in Florida, due to being deep in the state’s wetlands. Mating season is November through April and Kimmel reports the two piles of snakes were found in early May, which he says is later than expected.
The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is among the few agencies that have reported finding python mating balls. On Feb. 21, 2024, a conservancy team found two in one day near Naples, and the piles amounted to 11 pythons that collectively amounted to 500 pounds of snake, McClatchy News reported.
Burmese pythons are native to southeast Asia and it is believed they made it to Florida’s wetlands in the 1970s, via the exotic pet trade. The U.S. Geological survey estimates there are now “tens of thousands” of Burmese pythons in the Greater Everglades region.
This story was originally published June 10, 2025 at 6:56 AM with the headline "Hunters find 2 python ‘mating balls,’ but with an odd twist, Florida video shows."