I’ll bet you didn’t expect to see THIS in a gopher tortoise hole

Those of us who spend a lot of time on Gasparilla Island are used to the term “invasive species” when it comes to certain anoles, lizards, fish and, of course, iguanas. But on Wednesday, March 16 that term took on a whole new meaning. That afternoon a Florida Park Service employee at Gasparilla Island State Park called Florida Fish and Wildlife to report that a UF grad student named Sean McKnight had been scoping a gopher tortoise burrow on their property and he found something unexpected – a Burmese python.