Python measuring 11-feet captured after crossing Key Largo highway

Why did the 11-foot python cross the Overseas Highway?

The answer to that may never be known, but biologists will have time to study the snake after Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy Bryan Cross spotted the big reptile Friday as it slithered over the roadway near the 105 mile marker about 11 p.m.

Cross said he followed the snake into a heavily wooded lot and called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Officers were able to find and capture the snake without injuries to themselves or the critter, said FWC officer Robert Dube.

Dube said the snake is believed to be one of the many in the now-established population of exotics in the area, and is not an escaped pet.

The python was turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Key Largo.

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