A person has taken superb video footage of an alligator dragging away a lifeless Burmese python within the Florida Everglades.
The footage was captured by Everglades City resident Carl Nicholson on July 24 and was posted to his Facebook web page. The alligator will be seen pushing the lifeless python down a canal earlier than taking it to the water’s edge. It is just not clear whether or not the alligator killed the snake or discovered the serpent when it was already lifeless.
“There’s a gator with a big dead python in 29 canal,” Nicholson stated within the video. “Big gator too he can’t even take it under. He’s trying though.”
Burmese pythons are among the many largest snakes on this planet, able to rising to round 20 ft in size. The Florida report is a specimen that measured 18 ft, 9 inches.
Native to Southeast Asia, the snakes have thrived as an invasive species in South Florida, primarily within the Everglades ecosystem, the place they’re properly tailored to the native atmosphere.
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Humans launched Burmese pythons to Florida within the Seventies and Nineteen Eighties when 1000’s of them have been imported to be offered as unique pets.
“Burmese pythons were introduced to Florida through accidental and intentional releases through the pet trade,” Lisa Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, beforehand informed Newsweek. “Several introduction events likely occurred in multiple locations across South Florida.”
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While the dimensions of the Burmese python inhabitants is sort of unattainable to estimate as a result of the snakes are so onerous to detect—consultants assume the quantity is probably going within the tens of 1000’s, even perhaps increased—the invasive species is having a dangerous impact on the state’s native wildlife.
As a consequence, state authorities have applied a number of measures to attempt to management the python inhabitants—together with the Florida Python Challenge—despite the fact that eradicating them at this stage may be very unlikely.
American alligators are present in coastal wetlands all through the southeastern U.S., starting from Florida to as far north as North Carolina and as far west as jap Texas, in accordance with the National Wildlife Federation.
Males can develop to greater than 12 ft in size and weigh as a lot as 1,000 kilos, whereas females are typically barely smaller on common.
One of the explanations the Burmese python has thrived within the state is the dearth of pure predators. American alligators, nevertheless, have been recognized to prey on the snakes. Interactions between these two massive predators do not at all times lead to the identical consequence, as Burmese pythons have additionally been recorded consuming alligators once in a while.
“BIG BOY gator doing his part to help get rid of the invasive pythons here in South Florida where these snakes represent a threat to native wildlife!” Everglades Holiday Park stated in a Facebook put up sharing Nicholson’s video.