The invasion of the Florida Everglades by an alien predator with no known enemies has reached a tipping point.
Biologists are now warning of mass extinctions of native animal populations if invasive species are not brought under control soon.
A Burmese python can devour prey six times its size, including whole deer and alligators. a study by three scientists with the Southwest Florida Conservation found.
Researchers discovered a 115.2-pound female python consuming a 77-pound white-tailed deer while collecting data for the study, which appeared in the scientific journal ‘Reptiles & Amphibians.’
A video taken by Ian Bartoszek, one of the authors, showed the snake’s jaw so unhinged that its mouth could fit around the entire torso of the deer.
“Watching an invasive predator swallow a life-size deer in front of you is something you’ll never forget,” he said.
Scientists knew that pythons attacked foxes, bobcats, raccoons and other animals, but the discovery that they can eat creatures as large as 14-foot-long alligators has raised concerns.
«There is no denying the impact that the Burmese python is having on the native fauna. “This is a wildlife issue of our time for the Great Everglades ecosystem,” Bartoszek said.
The Everglades are a huge wetland in the southern tip of Florida. It spans 1.5 million acres and is home to endangered species such as the West Indian manatee, American crocodile and loggerhead sea turtle.
A 115.2-pound female Burmese python is seen devouring a 77-pound white-tailed deer somewhere in Everglades National Park.
Burmese pythons’ “aperture” – the scientific term for the width of their mouth – reached up to 8.7 inches in diameter, according to previous studies.
Based on the three snakes that scientists recently captured and kept in captivity, it is now evident that their opening can expand up to 10.2 inches, or a circumference of 32 inches.
Pictured: The Burmese python’s current “openness” compared to the roughly nine-inch limit the snake previously recorded
With that size mouth opening, these pythons could eat animals six times larger than similarly sized snakes of different species, The Conservancy concluded.
Pythons can do this because their lower jaws are not fused at the front.
Their skin is also incredibly elastic, allowing them to stretch over an animal that is apparently much larger than them.
Now that it’s known that pythons in Everglades National Park can eat just about anything, the scientists who worked on the study vowed to be more vigilant.
“In addition to the sheer size of the deer that was eaten being impressive, our anatomical measurements indicate that this deer was very close to the prey size limit that could be consumed by this snake,” said Bruce Jayne, a professor at the University of Cincinnati. . .
He continued: “Thus, these snakes look like highly successful people, as they sometimes test the limits of what their anatomy allows rather than being lazy people who eat only snack-sized prey.”
In 2022, a geoscientist who is also a bikini model shared images of her and her team removing a five-foot alligator from the bowels of an 18-foot Burmese python.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission contractors display a Burmese python captured Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, in the Everglades.
In the photo: Scientists perform a necropsy on a Burmese python that recently ate a large deer
Rosie Moore told DailyMail.com at the time that the python was located in the Everglades. And like scientists at The Nature Conservancy, she was also concerned about the snakes’ impact on local wildlife.
“They called us and said there was a large object inside, we thought it was a deer or an alligator,” he said. “They called us and told us there was a large object inside, we thought it was a deer or an alligator.”
The researchers clarified that they do not know precisely how many Burmese pythons in the wild are actually capable of swallowing deer whole, but TNC did. identify one in 2018 that it was able to eat a white-tailed fawn larger than the snake itself.
Burmese pythons were not always native to Florida. There are conflicting reports about how they came to be so numerous – with ‘tens of thousands‘ of them are estimated to be in the Great Everglades, but most sources agree that they were originally people’s pets.
Floridians’ practice of domesticating snakes dates back to the late 1970s and early 1980s, even though they are fully capable of killing and eating a human.
Burmese pythons were introduced to the state through the exotic pet trade as early as 1979, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
It is believed that many owners of these dangerous constrictor snakes did not know what to do with them when they gained over 200 pounds and grew up to 20 feet, so They let them out of their cages. and in nature where they proliferated.
Over the past 12 years, TNC’s Burmese python research team has tagged 120 snakes with radio tags to continually study their behavior in the wild. They have also removed 770 adult pythons from a 150-square-mile area in southwest Florida.
Western Mustangs linebacker Matt Janes relaxes at home with his nine-foot Burmese python in 1986.
Pictured is Mary Rollins putting a Burmese python in a suitcase in September 1981.
Donna Kalil poses with one of her captures. Kalil is a hunter for the South Florida Water Management District’s python removal program.
Jayne estimated that if each of these snakes ate just one deer the size they could swallow, it would be equivalent to more than 13,000 pounds of deer.
To put that in perspective, the average American eats about 224 pounds of red meat and poultry a year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
‘We have been removing pythons and advancing the science of invasive snakes for over a decade. “These animals continue to impress us every season and one thing we have learned for sure is not to underestimate the Burmese python,” Bartoszek said.
Jayne strongly agreed with her colleague, adding: “This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of its impact on prey populations.”