Researchers are shocked after finding alligator swallowed whole by 18ft-long python
Topics: Animals
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Rosie Moore/Instagram
Topics: Animals
Incredible footage has revealed the moment a team of scientists pulled a whole alligator from the stomach of an 18-foot long python in Florida.
Rosie Moore, who master’s degree in Geosciences, posted a jaw-dropping video to Instagram showing how snakes really don't muck around when it comes to their next meal.
The Burmese python was caught by field workers in the Florida Everglades and brought in to be assessed.
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Moore told UNILAD: "The first python found in the Everglades was reported in the 1980s, and the populations have exploded since.
"Like many other Florida invasives, this species found its way here through the pet trade. Individual and large-scale release events of these large constrictors led to wild breeding populations and resulted in a slew of negative ecological consequences."
Rosie told us that Burmese pythons can be humanely killed at any time throughout the year without a license 'due to their invasive status'.
"A heavy emphasis has been placed on their impacts on mammal populations in south Florida," she told UNILAD.
"Studies have shown that pythons are linked to severe declines in the Everglades mammal populations, such as raccoons, opossums, and bobcats."
The team of scientists had a few guesses about what this particular snake had eaten before being brought to them.
Moore added to the Daily Mail: "They called us and they said there was a large object in it, we thought it was either a deer or an alligator."
She added: "It's definitely shocking, it was my first time ever seeing an event like that, I've never seen a python with something like that in it."
Rosie's video has exploded on Instagram and has been viewed more than 10 million times.
Loads of people in the comments section were angry with how the researchers had to euthanise the python.
One person wrote: "Was the snake dead? So why did you cut his body off?"
Another added: "Poor thing. Could have at least rehomed it."
A third said: "And killing the snake will revive the crocodile?"
The reactions to the video caught Rosie off guard and she said it shows people need a bit more education on the topic.
"It honestly surprised me how little people knew about the invasive pythons in Florida and their impacts on our native populations down there," she explained to the Daily Mail.