Burmese pythons are notorious for their appetite and large share sizes . However , one individual in Florida has truly outperform its species , with scientist feel the corpse of at least three lily-white - tailed deer in its big bowel .
The scientists find the female python in the Everglades of southern Florida in the summertime of 2013 . As you’re able to recount by its name , the species ' aboriginal habitat is found in parts of South and Southeast Asia . They caught and euthanized the 4.78 - metre - long ( 15.68 - foot - long ) python as part of a ascendence program , as they ’re considered an encroaching metal money in Florida .
The squad ’s determination were recently written up in the journalBioInvasion Records . On look into the specimen , they studied its fecal remains ( good known as poop ) under a microscope and discovered white - tailed deer hairsbreadth , off-white fragments , and 12 hoof – indicating the snake had absorb at least three individual deer .
Using the circumscribed data usable , they estimated that the alive weights of the deer were approximately 45 , 17 , and 13 kilograms ( 99 , 37 , and 29 pounds ) each . It ’s hard to guess when the python exhaust these three meal and the time between each , however the researchers say at least two of the cervid were eaten within the 87 days old to the snake ’s death .
The Burmese python ’s large gut during autopsy . Scott M. Boback et al , 2016
It ’s a bite of a mystery how Florida became home to a average number of this exotic coinage , although it ’s been speculated they are runaways from the pet trade . Since the late 20th hundred , Burmese pythons have become quite the gadfly when it comes to their effect on the Florida ecosystem , since they act as an apex marauder , have a broad diet , jubilantly reproduce , and are comparatively heavy to detect as they can lie monotonous within the tropic wetland .
Aprevious studyon introduced Burmese python and their effects on the Everglades found that “ giant snake , acting as generalist apex predators , can exercise important top - down pressure on craniate populations , even in a complex ecosystem with an exceedingly wide array of available prey coinage . ”
With an appetite like this , it ’s perhaps not a surprise .
The fecal topic plant in the large intestine . Scott M. Boback et al , 2016
The hoofs of whitened - tail deer strike within the fecal matter . Scott M. Boback et al , 2016
