Katrina Boychew, a woman from Florida, visited the Everglades in late March and caught the alligator playing with her prey, the Burmese python.
Katrina Boychew shared on social networks a video showing a crocodile using its large strong jaws to grab a Burmese python, Insider on April 6 reported. The hunter then tosses the prey in the swamp for a while before continuing to eat the meat.
The footage was not too shocking for Rosie Moore, a geoscientist who lives in Florida and often works with pythons and alligators. According to Moore, the crocodile shook his head and tossed the python to break the large meal into smaller pieces.
“Personally, I have never witnessed such a sight, but the fact that crocodiles eat python meat is not too surprising. Pythons are an important food in the crocodile’s diet. Depending on the size of each individual, the opportunity. for crocodiles to hunt pythons and pythons to hunt crocodiles is the same,” Moore said.
The adult Burmese python (Python bivittatus) is about 4.5 – 7 m long and can weigh up to 90 kg. Their main prey is small mammals and birds. Burmese pythons have been raging in Florida for many years. They are native to Southeast Asia and are invasive in the United States, competing for food with native organisms. Many native species are also eaten by Burmese pythons, causing their numbers to drop. Last November, a python about 5.5 meters long swallowed an entire crocodile.
Reports of crocodiles and pythons eating each other are increasing, according to Moore. “This may be due to the python’s range extending further north, closer to areas frequented by humans, increasing the number of times humans encounter them and report them. One cause The other is that the overall population of pythons has also increased. The python situation in Florida has exceeded controllable levels, “Moore said.
