Python found eating deer in Florida amazes scientists

NAPLES, Fla. – A study by Southwestern biologists Florida discovered that massive snakes known as Burmese pythons can consume larger prey than previously thought.

According to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, the snakes gape, or the measure of how wide the jaw can extend, is at least two centimeters wider than previously observed, allowing the reptiles to be eaten by larger deer, alligators and other sizable prey.

The group says it measured the jaws of three large adult females, including one that ingested a 77-pound white-tailed deer in a Florida swamp. The deer has been reported to be almost two-thirds the total mass of the snake.

A Burmese python was seen eating a deer in Florida in 2024. (Conservancy of Southwest Florida/Facebook)

“Watching an invasive apex predator gobble up a full-sized deer in front of you is something you’ll never forget. The impact the Burmese python has on native wildlife cannot be denied. This is a wildlife issue of our time for the Greater Everglades. ecosystem,” said Ian Bartoszek, a biologist involved in the study.

READING: The Florida Python Challenge 2024 removes nearly 200 invasive snakes from the state

According to wildlife experts, snakes’ lower bones are not fused, allowing their mouths to stretch.

Female Burmese python measuring 14.8 inches (4.5 m) and weighing 115.2 lbs (52.3 kg) consuming a white-tailed deer weighing 76.9 lbs (34.9 kg) in southwest Florida. Image credit: Ian Bartoszek, Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

“In addition to the sheer 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. which their anatomy allows, rather than being sloths that only eat ‘snack-sized’ prey,” the Conservancy said.

This adaptation allows the predator to consume prey six times larger than snakes of similar size.

READING: FWC captures a massive Burmese python in the Everglades

Previous studies have shown that animals such as bobcats, deer, raccoons, rabbits and foxes have all experienced declines in the Everglades because pythons are able to survive due to their lack of predators.

The Conservancy hopes the new information will aid control efforts by policymakers and local biologists.

In a file photo, Donna Kalil, a python hunter who removes invasive Burmese pythons, shows off a recent catch at a service market near Miami on April 23, 2021. (Patrick Connolly/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty images)

According to the Conservancy’s Burmese Python Research and Removal Team, it has eradicated at least 770 adult pythons from Everglades and South Florida ecosystems.

“We have been removing pythons and promoting invasive snake science for over a decade. These animals continue to impress us every season and one thing we’ve definitely learned is not to underestimate the Burmese python,” said Bartoszek.

The National Park Service reports that the first Everglades Burmese python was spotted in 1979, and the population increased in the 1990s.

A 2013 estimate put the Burmese python population at between 30,000 and 150,000 snakes in South Florida, a number suspected to have increased in the years since.

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