Alligator python...

‘Giant Python eats alligator, explodes’, scientists have documented several such alligator and python encounters in the Everglades of Florida. The sight in the picture and the adventure described was interesting as well as scary. A giant python swallowed an alligator in September 2005, in Florida’s Everglades. The file photographs from the wildlife researchers and biologists concurred that a 13-foot python tried to swallow a 6-foot alligator, but exploded.

The alligator’s hindquarter was found protruding from the midsection of the python. Several hypothetical chains of events have been created, to describe the encounter between the alligator and python. Some assume that the alligator must have clawed at the python’s stomach when the snake was trying to digest it, leading to an explosion in the python’s midsection. Whatever the reason may be, this incident has alerted the biologists to a new danger lurking in the Everglades, for the Burmese pythons.

Alligators and pythons in Florida: Confrontations between alligators and pythons in the Florida Everglades have increased in the past 20 years. The Everglades, located in southern Florida is known to be the home to healthy alligators. Unwanted pet pythons that were dumped in the swamp of Everglades have thrived and posed a threat to the alligators. When pet pythons grew too big, they were released in these swamp areas to fend for themselves. Pythons have been able to survive and reproduce in Everglades, Florida. A number of tourists have stumbled upon battles between alligators and pythons in Florida’s Everglade National Park.

Pythons can swallow alligators: Large Burmese pythons can swallow goats and pigs. There has been no published account of a python swallowing, constricting and digesting alligators, though. But considering their formidable list of prey, it is not unreasonable to suspect that pythons can swallow alligators. On the basis of some photographic evidence, wildlife researchers made an observation of an encounter between an alligator and a python. They were surprised to see that an 800-gram python swallowed a 200-gram dead alligator, in just 15 minutes. The python was taken to a veterinary clinic every day to get its midsection x-rayed. The reports revealed the daily disintegration of the alligator’s skull, shoulder region, fore limbs and pelvic region. It took the snake 9 days to complete the digestion.

Alligators and pythons in the Everglades: The Everglades is one of the largest wetlands in the world. It is located in southern Florida. It comprises of a shallow fresh water sheet that rolls through the lowlands and a billion blades of ‘saw-grass’. It is home to a unique collection of species that include reptiles, mammals, amphibians, birds and plants. In 2004, 6,140 Burmese pythons were imported into the US. Thousands were also captive bred. Today, hundreds of constrictors, 6 meters and more and weighing around 91 kilograms, are expanding and breeding in these wetlands of Florida. The first python was spotted in 1979 in the Everglades, but no more were seen until 1995. Alligators and pythons have always been natural enemies. Several people claim to bear witness to encounters between alligators and pythons in the Everglades. Burmese pythons are just one of the thousand predator species that have invaded the native ecosystem of alligators. The American alligator is part of the endangered species list of the Everglades, Florida and they share their territory with an increasing python population.