04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Massive snake — one of the biggest in captivity — dies at Florida tourist attraction
A python believed to be among the largest snakes in captivity has died at a southwest Florida tourist attraction, giving handlers a chance to see just how big she got over the past 30 years.
Final measurement: 25 feet, 8 inches, according to David Shealy, a member of the Shealy family that has long operated Skunkape Headquarters in Ochopee.
The snake was popularly known by the name Goldie.
'It is with heavy hearts that we announced the passing of our beloved giant snake,' the attraction wrote in a Feb. 27 Facebook post that has gotten hundreds of reactions and comments.
'Goldie passed away due to complications of old age, and she will be deeply missed by all of us. ... She was truly a legend among reticulated pythons.'
The 400-pound snake was a key attraction for Skunkape Headquarters — currently owned and operated by Shealy's son Jack Shealy — which advertised her as 'one of the largest snakes held in captivity.'
Guinness World Records reports the biggest reticulated python ever captured was 32 feet, 9.5 inches, and the longest living in captivity was a 25-foot, 2-inch snake that died in 2011 in Kansas City, Missouri.
That means Goldie was about 6 inches longer at the time of her death.
'She came to us in the early 2000s after being rehomed from a zoo and spending a few years as a household pet. At that time, she was estimated to be between 10 and 15 years old,' Skunkape Headquarters wrote in its Facebook post.
The attraction, which is about a 75-mile drive west from Miami, pondered ways to memorialize Goldie and came up with a plan to have her hide professionally tanned for display. That's how an accurate measurement was achieved, David Shealy said.
'The plan is to preserve the skin in a climate-controlled glass box where people can view it hopefully for many generations to come and it will be inside of our Gladesman Heritage Exhibit,' he said in an email to McClatchy News.
Goldie was like a member of the family, Shealy said, but handlers never forgot that she was capable of swallowing a 150-pound human.
Her diet consisted of thawed-out frozen rabbits, whole chickens 'and occasionally a raccoon or possum' found dead on roads, he said.
'The rule was we never opened the cage without others there to assist if there was a problem,' he said.
'Even though I knew her well she was full of surprises and could strike a distance of more than 9 feet in what seemed like a flash of light.'
