Burmese python caught in Florida with 73 eggs inside

July 11 (UPI) -- A Florida python hunter bagged a 14-foot, 62-pound female that he said was carrying 73 eggs at the time of its capture.

Dusty Crum, one of 25 hunters employed by the South Florida Water Management District to catch invasive Burmese pythons in the Everglades, said the mother snake was one of five pythons measured Monday in Homestead.

"The problem is that the reproduction rate on these Burmese pythons -- the big snake had 73 eggs in it, and it's explosive to the population," Crum told WPLG-TV. "So we need to take as many as we can out, because they're harming all of our native animals and they're eliminating food sources for our native predators."

The district pays the hunters the state minimum wage of $8.10 per hour, plus $40 for each snake up to 4 feet and an additional $25 for each foot beyond 4 feet.

Crum previously made headlines in May when he was filmed capturing a 17-foot python with his bare hands.