Hungry python gorged itself on three deer

Hungry python gorged itself on three deer

Mangalore Today News Network

Dec 07, 2016: A 16-foot long Burmese python was found with the remains of three whole deer in its gut, researchers have revealed.

The snake was trapped and euthanised in the Florida Everglades in June 2013. Researchers who conducted a necropsy on the creature subsequently discovered its record-breaking deer consumption, details of which have now been published in the journal BioInvasions Records.

Native to Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons are now an invasive species in Florida after being introduced to the region in the 1990s.

According to lead researcher Scott Boback, an associate professor of biology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, the python probably consumed the deer over about 90 days – a relatively short period for a snake to have three such large meals.

"If a python is capable of eating three deer in three months," he told Live Science, "what else are they eating that we don’t know about? We don’t even know how many of them are out there [in the Everglades]."

The study notes that the non-native pythons have been known to eat indigenous animals, and previous research has shown a correlation between their presence and a drop in the number of mammals such as rabbits, bobcats and racoons.

Discussing the new findings, Boback said: "It just begs the question, ’How often are they eating these things?’"

Researchers suggested that the snake may have hidden in the water, allowing to get within striking distance of the deer when they were drinking.

Study co-authors Teresa Hsu and Suzanne Peurach, who performed the autopsy on the animal, found 14 lbs of fecal matter, equating to 13 per cent of its body mass. The fecal matter contained a large quantity of undigested fur, hooves, bones and teeth.