Burmese python completely swallowed a deer
On the edge of possibility: a Burmese python completely swallowed a deer in Florida.
To swallow the white-tailed deer, the python had to stretch its mouth to the widest possible width.
One such case involving a Burmese python in Everglades National Park in South Florida was reported by conservation officers.
Burmese pythons in the area are considered an invasive species.
They were introduced in the middle of the last century and by the 1990s began actively breeding and preying on native species.
There are believed to be hundreds of thousands of pythons living in Florida, and they have caused significant damage to the ecosystem, wiping out some mammal species.
Burmese pythons are known for their ability to devour large animals, including deer and alligators, but it is rare to observe this activity.
This limits the amount of knowledge about the eating habits of these snakes and their impact on the ecosystem.
Recently, scientists observed a female python devour an entire white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) that weighed 67% of the snake’s own weight.
Scientists explain that the jaw structure allows pythons to stretch their jaws much wider than snakes of similar size.
Jan Bartoszek, a biologist involved in the study of these snakes, said that it was incredible to see such a spectacle in person.