Collier County, Fla. (WFLA) – Deep in the Florida Everglades, it’s clearly a world of cat owners.
NBC affiliate WBBH reports that the discovery of a 13-foot, 52-pound Burmese python led to wildlife officials pursuing the perpetrator.
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A conservancy of biologists in southwestern Florida was searching for a snake named Loki as part of a tracking program that led researchers to burrows filled with invasive reptile eggs. They discovered “MVP: Most Valuable Python”, with head and neck nibbling and partially buried bodies.
He pointed out that partial burials, known as “caching,” were extraordinary.
“As far as I know, there are only two things to do: the bobcat and the panther,” Conservancy wildlife biologist Ian Barthsek told WBBH.
With the help of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, researchers founded trail cameras. This reveals the perpetrator who has returned to the scene of the crime. It was a bobcat.
“Did a 25-pound cat kill a 52-pound Python and cache it? That’s a victory for the home team. We all tend to like animals that punch above the weight class. Here we had native animals that were pushed back by invasive apex predators,” Bartoszek told WBBH.
Snacks from snake species that have invaded bobcats, deer, crocodile and native snakes. There are no natural predators in it – or at least that’s what biologists believed.
“The Everglades are fighting back. It gives me hope,” Bartotzek said.
