[7] This species is sexually dimorphic in size; females average only slightly longer, but are considerably heavier and bulkier than the males.

[13] The record for maximum length of a Burmese python is 5.79 m (19 ft 0 in) and was caught 10 July 2023 in South Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve.

[19] The Burmese python occurs throughout Southern and Southeast Asia, including eastern India, southeastern Nepal, western Bhutan, southeastern Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, northern continental Malaysia, and southern China in Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, and Yunnan.

It lives in grasslands, marshes, swamps, rocky foothills, woodlands, river valleys, and jungles with open clearings.

Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was deemed responsible for the destruction of a python-breeding facility and zoo, and these escaped snakes spread and populated areas into the Everglades.

[30] In addition to this correlational relationship, the pythons have also been experimentally shown to decrease marsh rabbit populations, further suggesting they are responsible for many of the recorded mammal declines.

By 2011, researchers identified up to 25 species of birds from nine avian orders in the digestive tract remains of 85 Burmese pythons found in Everglades National Park.

[clarification needed] Also, the Burmese pythons in Florida have been found to prefer elevated habitats, since this provides the optimal conditions for nesting.

The purpose of the challenge was to raise awareness about the invasive species, increase participation from the public and agency cooperation, and to remove as many pythons as possible from the Florida Everglades.

Genomic data suggests natural selection on these populations favors increased thermal tolerance as a result of these high-mortality freezes.

[19] In April 2019, researchers captured and killed a large Burmese python in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve.

[40] In December 2021, a Burmese python was captured in Florida that weighed 98 kg (215 lb) and had a length of 5.5 m (18 ft); it contained a record 122 developing eggs.

[41] In July 2023, local hunters captured and killed a 5.8 m (19 ft) long Burmese python that weighed 57 kg (125 lb) in Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve.

In the northern parts of its range, the Burmese python may brumate for some months during the cold season in a hollow tree, a hole in the riverbank, or under rocks.

Burmese pythons breed in the early spring, with females laying clutches of 12–36 eggs in March or April.

The newly hatched babies often remain inside their eggs until they are ready to complete their first shedding of skin, after which they hunt for their first meal.

It is a sit-and-wait predator, meaning it spends most of its time staying relatively still, waiting for prey to approach, then striking rapidly.

In captivity, its diet consists primarily of commercially available appropriately sized rats, graduating to larger prey such as rabbits and poultry as it grows.

As an invasive species in Florida, Burmese pythons primarily eat a variety of small mammals including foxes, rabbits, and raccoons.

Exceptionally large pythons may even require larger food items such as pigs or goats, and are known to have attacked and eaten alligators and adult deer in Florida.

[50] During digestion, the snake's oxygen consumption rises drastically as well, increasing with meal size by 17 to 40 times its resting rate.

[1] To maintain Burmese python populations, the IUCN recommends increased conservation legislation and enforcement at the national and international levels to reduce harvesting across the snake's native range.

[citation needed] Burmese pythons are often sold as pets, and are made popular by their attractive coloration and apparently easy-going nature.

Burmese pythons are opportunistic feeders;[59] they eat almost any time food is offered, and often act hungry even when they have recently eaten.

[60] Although pythons are typically afraid of people due to their great stature, and generally avoid them, special care is still required when handling them.

Early reports indicate that these dwarf Burmese pythons have slightly different coloring and pattern from their mainland relatives and do not grow much over 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) in length.

This particular variety is very rare, being entirely bright white with no pattern and blue eyes, and has only in 2008/2009 been reproduced in captivity as the homozygous form (referred to as "super" by reptile keepers) of the co-dominant hypomelanistic trait.