A Burmese python with a tracking device led Florida officials to a sex party
 

I swear the title is not mine!

Also I thought burms bred in the fall/winter, the females ovulated and produce eggs in the spring, and incubate the eggs during the warmer months. Once gravid the females usually want nothing to do with the males. So, why would 8 males be hanging out with one gravid female?

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/...king-sex-party

A Burmese python with a tracking device led Florida officials to a record-breaking sex party

Posted By Linzie Lawton on Mon, Apr 16, 2018 at 4:34 PM

An invasive Burmese python with a surgically implanted tracking device led Florida researchers to the largest python "aggregation" ever found in Collier County.

A couple of days before Valentine's Day, a male python (or sentinel) nicknamed Argo was fitted with a tracking device and led researchers with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida to a 100-pound female python about to lay eggs.

The female was captured, and Argo was then released to be tracked down again. Just three days later and about a half-mile away from the first location, they found the horny snake attending a record-breaking snake sex party, also known as an "aggregation."

The researchers found Argo with a pregnant gravid female weighing about 115 pounds and seven other male Burmese pythons. The eight were the most snakes ever found in one place within Southwest Florida and the western Everglades, reports the Naples Daily News.

The Burmese python problem has became such an issue in Florida that the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission allows for the killing and removal of Burmese pythons without a permit. In fact, the FWC encourages people to remove and kill pythons from private lands whenever possible.

Tracking the males is such a clever way to find out more about the populations and finding the females. What a great idea!

I saw the same article, although the headline was even more outlandish- "Python trackers find record breeding group in Florida"
I agree that this is a serious problem, and the pythons need to be eradicated. However I cringe every time one of these articles is published, and the entire herp community is vilified by the ignorant masses in the comments section.

Just because the gravid female wants nothing to do with the males does not mean that the reverse is true- I guess her perfume was irresistible?

Yep; the only intelligent comments were from Melinda.

Females are usually big enough to encourage the males to take themselves elsewhere if they aren't interested though.