Nguyen Thu Tran, 44, handed the python, weighing 53kg and stretching more than 5m long. This is the biggest python the department has ever received.

A 5-meter 53-kg python is handed over to the HCMC's Forest Management Department, December 27, 2022.

Tran said that seven years ago a friend gave him the python to eat but that he felt sorry for the snake and so put it in a cage and raised it until today.

"When I first got it, the python weighed just 7kg, but now it has become too big so I want to return it back to the wild," he said.

The python goes by the scientific name Python bivittatus and belongs to the Group IIB of Vietnam's Red List, which means animals that are endangered, rare and precious wildlife species. It is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The python can grow as long as 8m long.

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25 kg python enters HCMC home

A reticulated python three meters long and weighing 25 kilograms was caught after entering a house in Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Phu District on Saturday.

Python devours goat in central province

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Source: VnExpress