Swamp critters amok

OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators in the
Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator - ended in a scene
as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so gruesomely
it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of either creature.

When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in Everglades
National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded from the ruptured
gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.

For scientists, exactly how the clash occurred is a compelling curiosity.
More importantly, the latest and most extraordinary encounter provides
disturbing evidence that giant exotic snakes, which can top 20 feet in
length and kill by squeezing the life out of prey, have not only invaded the
Everglades but also could challenge the native gator for a perch atop the
food chain.

"It's just off-the-charts absurd to think that this kind of animal, a
significant top-of-the-pyramid kind of predator in its native land, is
trying to make a living in South Florida," said park biologist Skip Snow,
who has been tracking the spread of the snakes.

Pythons, likely abandoned by pet owners, have been seen in the Everglades
since the 1980s. But in the past two years alone, Snow has documented 156
python captures, a surge that has convinced biologists the snakes are
multiplying in the wild.

The growing population of big, scary predators also raises questions about
threats to native species and whether anything indigenous - gators, for
starters - might be capable of consuming and potentially controlling one of
the world's largest snake species.

The latest find was spotted floating in a spike rush marsh in the Shark
River Slough on Sept. 26 by Michael Barron, a helicopter pilot. It was
examined the next day by Snow.

The discovery confirmed that snakes and gators, while typically consuming
less troublesome mammals, turtles and birds, have an appetite for each
other - at least when the opportunity presents itself.

The first observed encounter in the park occurred three years ago when
awestruck onlookers at the popular Anhinga Trail boardwalk witnessed a
tussle between a 10- to 15-foot snake and 6- to 9-foot gator. That fight,
which lasted an estimated 24 hours, ended in an apparent draw, with both
swimming off and vanishing.

Such clashes, though spawned by damaging incursion by an exotic species,
can't help but fascinate both the public and scientists, said Frank
Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor. Mazzotti said size
would probably dictate which species would win most encounters.

small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass of a
6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a 13-foot
Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

small change wrote:
small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass of a
6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a 13-foot
Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

Jeez, that's some crazy stuff. And seems to be part of a pattern of
strange animal behavior:

http://www.pbfcomics.com/temporary/P...DUtterPig.html

/s

wrote:
small change wrote:
small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass
of a 6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a
13-foot Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

Jeez, that's some crazy stuff. And seems to be part of a pattern of
strange animal behavior:

http://www.pbfcomics.com/temporary/P...DUtterPig.html

/s

heh, this was real life. I wonder if I still have a photo of a python that
ate a cow that my friend who lived in Sumatra took and sent to me...

small change wrote:
small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass
of a 6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a
13-foot Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

Not that I doubted you, but...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/snakegator.asp

small change wrote:
small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass
of a 6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a
13-foot Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

Here's a better picture that shows the correct head and tail orientation:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...neatsgator.jpg

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Bill Sornson wrote:
small change wrote:
small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators
in the Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator -
ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so
gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of
either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in
Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded
from the ruptured gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.



here's the photo, hoping you don't have to login to get the AP image

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...05_JV5ME82.jpg

" This photo provided by Everglades National Park shows the carcass
of a 6-foot American alligator protruding from the mid-section of a
13-foot Burmese python. (Associated Press ) "

Not that I doubted you, but...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/snakegator.asp

is the AP ever wrong?
and amazingly enough I still have those pics of a python that ate a cow...

small change wrote:
OT. Bizarre imagery, frankly a little disturbing...


MIAMI - A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators in the
Everglades - a Burmese python and an American alligator - ended in a scene
as rare as it was bizarre.

The 13-foot-snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so gruesomely
it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of either creature.

When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in Everglades
National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded from the ruptured
gut of a python - which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake's head was missing.

For scientists, exactly how the clash occurred is a compelling curiosity.
More importantly, the latest and most extraordinary encounter provides
disturbing evidence that giant exotic snakes, which can top 20 feet in
length and kill by squeezing the life out of prey, have not only invaded the
Everglades but also could challenge the native gator for a perch atop the
food chain.

"It's just off-the-charts absurd to think that this kind of animal, a
significant top-of-the-pyramid kind of predator in its native land, is
trying to make a living in South Florida," said park biologist Skip Snow,
who has been tracking the spread of the snakes.

Pythons, likely abandoned by pet owners, have been seen in the Everglades
since the 1980s. But in the past two years alone, Snow has documented 156
python captures, a surge that has convinced biologists the snakes are
multiplying in the wild.

The growing population of big, scary predators also raises questions about
threats to native species and whether anything indigenous - gators, for
starters - might be capable of consuming and potentially controlling one of
the world's largest snake species.

The latest find was spotted floating in a spike rush marsh in the Shark
River Slough on Sept. 26 by Michael Barron, a helicopter pilot. It was
examined the next day by Snow.

The discovery confirmed that snakes and gators, while typically consuming
less troublesome mammals, turtles and birds, have an appetite for each
other - at least when the opportunity presents itself.

The first observed encounter in the park occurred three years ago when
awestruck onlookers at the popular Anhinga Trail boardwalk witnessed a
tussle between a 10- to 15-foot snake and 6- to 9-foot gator. That fight,
which lasted an estimated 24 hours, ended in an apparent draw, with both
swimming off and vanishing.

Such clashes, though spawned by damaging incursion by an exotic species,
can't help but fascinate both the public and scientists, said Frank
Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor. Mazzotti said size
would probably dictate which species would win most encounters.


Someone, please send one of those little snakes over to my 'hood
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4811662 Coming up
on two months, and we still can't bag the dude. We imported expert
gator hunters from Colorado and Florida, tried to lurer him out of the
water with grocery chickens & tortillas... And nada... the Beast lives :-)

--
Slack

Sounds suspiciously to me like a redneck recipe gone wrong. Take one
python, stuff with an alligator and allow to ripen in nearby swamp.

"spademan o---[) *" wrote in message
oups.com...
Sounds suspiciously to me like a redneck recipe gone wrong. Take one
python, stuff with an alligator and allow to ripen in nearby swamp.

LMMFAO!

HEY, YOU CAN'T SAY STUFF LIKE THAT IT'S REDNECKIST!






Shaun aRe