Python vs. Alligator-
MIAMI -- A python's eyes were apparently bigger than its stomach.
Scientists in Florida are puzzling over a Burmese python that scarfed down a six-foot alligator before its stomach ruptured.
They found the carcasses in an isolated part of Florida's Everglades National Park. Photos show the gator's hind legs and tail sticking out of the 13-foot snake's ruptured gut.
The Miami Herald reported that scientists can't figure out how the snake got the critter down. The snake's head is also missing.
Experts say the clash is interesting, but it also shows the exotic snakes are competing with gators to top the food chain in the Everglades.
The gators have had to share their territory with a python population that has swelled over the past 20 years after owners dropped off pythons they no longer wanted in the Everglades. The Asian snakes have thrived in the wet, hot climate.
"Encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. ... And we here are, it's happened for the fourth time," Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, said. In the other cases, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.
"They were probably evenly matched in size," Mazzotti said of the latest battle. "If the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win."
"Clearly, if they can kill an alligator they can kill other species," Mazzotti said. "There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons. ... This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win."
"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top down predator," Mazzotti said.
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