Alligator nicknamed ‘Godzilla’ hauls massive Burmese python through water in Florida Everglades

A large alligator was recently caught on video towing an enormous Burmese python through the water in the Florida Everglades.

The video, shot from the observation tower at Shark Valley by Everglades National Park tour guide Kelly Alvarez on Thanksgiving Day, shows the alligator, nicknamed “Godzilla,” holding the dead python near one end and swimming along the surface of the water dragging the snake along.

“It’s huge,” someone can be heard saying in the video, “That’s a really, really big python.”

Alvarez told USA TODAY she estimates the alligator to be 10 to 12 feet long and the python in the video appears to be close to twice the gator’s length.

“You know it’s something serious when it’s something we haven’t seen before,” another tour guide says in the video.

“I have seen many alligators eating pythons out here….I have never, ever, ever seen a python that large,” Alvarez told USA TODAY.

What’s the largest Burmese python caught in Florida?

Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes in the world, with adult animals averaging between 10 and 16 feet long, according to the University of Florida.

A group of python hunters caught the longest Burmese python ever measured on July 10, 2023, in the Big Cypress National Preserve in eastern Collier County.

The monster snake was 19 feet long.

The heaviest Burmese python ever recorded was caught by Conservancy of Southwest Florida biologists in the Florida Everglades in 2022. The colossal female python weighed an eye-popping 215 pounds and was nearly 18 feet long.

Invasive Burmese pythons wreak havoc on Everglades ecosystem

Burmese pythons are an invasive species established across more than a thousand square miles of South Florida, including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and Collier-Seminole State Park.

The constrictors have few predators and prey on native species, eating just about anything from field mice to deer.

According to a 2012 study, they’ve contributed to the decline of raccoons, opossums, bobcats, foxes, and marsh and cottontail rabbits.

Watch alligator pull huge Burmese python through water in Florida

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida alligator tows colossal python through Everglades water: Video