The discovery of a radio transmitter from a studied Burmese python inside the stomach of a native cottonmouth snake has provided researchers with a rare piece of evidence in the ongoing conflict
The discovery of a radio transmitter from a studied Burmese python inside the stomach of a native cottonmouth snake has provided researchers with a rare piece of evidence in the ongoing conflict between invasive pythons and native wildlife in the Florida Everglades. A biologist tracking the signal from the implanted transmitter found a swollen cottonmouth in the saw grass containing the transmitte…
A swamp full of hungry predators and giant pythons had Florida scientists desperate for a solution. For years, invasive Burmese pythons wiped out native wildlife across the Everglades, and typical removal methods simply could not keep pace.
Burmese pythons in Florida can swallow an adult deer whole. The snakes have severely reduced raccoon, rabbit, and fox populations in the southern Everglades, and for years no native predator appeared able to stop them. Then researchers implanted radio transmitters in young pythons and followed the signals. Some of the pythons died, but their transmitters kept moving through the black water inside…