A well-placed trail camera in the Florida Everglades captured a bobcat feasting on Burmese python eggs. Wildlife researchers observed that the male bobcat is "consuming, trampling, caching, and uncovering the eggs" while the python is away. But the photos also showed that it had to confront a much larger snake and trade blows on some occasions.
The videos and photos were taken in 2021 as part of the research project at the Big Cypress National Preserve from June to September 2021. The full details were published in a study titled "Face-Off: Novel Depredation and Nest Defense Behaviors Between an Invasive and a Native Predator in the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, Florida, USA," in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Bobcat Captured in Trail Camera Destroying A Burmese Python Nest, Eating Its Eggs
First-Ever Documented Bobcat and Python Face-Off
Newsweek reported that since the pythons were introduced in the Everglades National Park in the 1980s and 1990s, they have caused 90% of the declining native mammal populations in the area. Due to that, wildlife specialists are concerned that they will cause an imbalance in the ecosystem by taking away the prey from other native predators.
The clip of a bobcat eating python eggs is said to be the first documented instance that the animal or any Florida predator targeted a Burmese python nest and also the first time anyone has documented a Burmese python defending its nest. The scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) closely observed and documented how the bobcat behaved around the nest from June 1 to June 4.
The bobcat came to find an unprotected nest on the first day and decided to feast on the eggs, Miami Herald reported. It leaves only to return before midnight to trample on the nest. The bobcat continued the behavior by returning to the nest until the mother python was home. The bobcat also observed the nesting snake until the fourth day.
The bobcat expertly attacked the snake from a distance and swiped and bat at the python for several minutes while also dodging the attacks of the python to defend itself.
The bobcat weighed around 20 pounds while the phyton was likely 120 pounds, according to the researchers. Given the size of the python, researchers said that the bobcat was lucky to survive since the python was not interested in eating.
They went to the nest on June 15 and moved the python from its nest, recovering 64 snake eggs. But most of them were inevitable or destroyed because of the bobcat. They were able to identify 22 destroyed but potentially viable eggs.
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A Promising Sign of Resilience AMong Native Mammals in Everglades
The team commended the bobcat's bravery for fighting against the python. It signals a promising sign that the native wildlife in the Everglades is fighting against the invasive Burmese python. These snakes have devastated the natural ecosystem and reduced the populations of mammals in some parts of the park.
Ecologists said that the documented interaction between the bobcat and the python is a sign of resilience. According to National Geography, other animals in the park are also capable of hunting adult pythons, although it was never documented before. In 2019, researchers found a carcass of a python with claw marks that matched the size and shape of bobcat claws.
They believe that there will be more exciting information like the interaction between the bobcat and python in the next couple of years as researchers set out to observe the serpents every day. Below is the entire photo-documented sequence between the native bobcat and the invasive Burmese python:
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