An invasive Burmese python – and its tracking transmitter – was eaten by another snake in Florida, an X-ray taken at Zoo Miami shows.
A slightly larger native cottonmouth consumed the python, Zoo Miami confirmed in Thursocial media posts Thursday.
“You can see the spine and the transmitter of the python inside of the cottonmouth on this x-ray, or radiograph, that was taken at Zoo Miami’s animal hospital,” Zoo Miami wrote on Facebook, adding that the python’s transmitter had previously been implanted by zoo surgeons.
Zoo Miami noted that the cottonmouth is one “native species that is fighting back!” against the invasive python – also pointing to a bobcat that recently made news for stealing and eating python eggs.
Watch: Biologists capture ‘antagonistic’ interaction between bobcat and python in Florida
In an email to USA TODAY Wednesday morning, Zoo Miami communications director Ron Magill confirmed that the snake was captured in May 2021. It was located by a tracking transmitter, which had been previously implanted in the young, female python as part of a study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department and the U.S. Geological Survey.
In tracking this python, researchers were led to an adult cottonmouth at Big Cypress National Preserve. They assumed the python had been eaten by the cottonmouth, which was later confirmed in the X-ray, Magill added.
Previously, in August 2020, the researchers found that another young python was also eaten by a cottonmouth in Southwest Florida’s Picayune Strand State Forest. Their findings were published in December.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department and the U.S. Geological Survey tracked the pythons, not Zoo Miami, Magill noted. But the transmitter was implanted by Zoo Miami surgeons and the X-rays were taken at the zoo’s animal hospital.
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Burmese pythons, which are not native to Florida, prey on birds, mammals and other reptiles. Through competition for food and habitat, the invasive snake’s presence has had devastating impacts on the Everglades’ biodiversity and ecosystem. The U.S. Geological Survey, for example, has found links to severe population declines in native rabbits, foxes, bobcats, raccoons and more.
You may have heard in the news about the bobcat that was documented stealing and consuming eggs from an invasive Burmese python in the Everglades. But, that isn’t the only native species that is fighting back! You can read more about it here: https://t.co/DrN6HDoOxY 🐍 pic.twitter.com/hmY8VuWsoV
— Zoo Miami (@zoomiami) August 18, 2022
Efforts to combat Burmese pythons include python hunts and “double-agent” pythons. Conservancy biologists have implanted radio transmitters on male “scout” snakes, for example, who go in search of females. When they find one, the scientists swoop in. A female python can lay as many as 100 eggs a year.
June: Biologists catch record-breaking 215-pound Burmese python in Florida Everglades
Photos of annual ‘removal competition’: Snake hunters swarm ‘Florida Python Challenge’
Since 2000, more than 17,000 pythons have been removed from the Everglades ecosystem, according to a news release from a python hunt that took place earlier this month.
Contributing: Amy Bennett Williams, Fort Myers News-Press; and The Associated Press.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Burmese python was eaten by a cottonmouth snake, Zoo Miami X-ray shows
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