There is strong popular interest in the sizes of giant pythons
that dates far back into history and continues to the present day.
This was particularly well illustrated by the media hysteria that
followed the USGS news release on 20 February 2008 that was
titled “USGS Maps Show Potential Non-Native Python Habitat
Along Three U.S. Coasts.” The report that followed described
the Burmese python as “huge” with a maximum size of 7–8 m
(23 ft–26 ft 3 in) (Rodda et al., 2008/2009; Reed and Rodda,
2009). The countless newspaper articles, news reports and
documentaries that followed typically stressed the “massive”
size of Burmese pythons and of pythons in general.