Posted on 11/01/2011 10:47:13 PM PDT by BagCamAddict
(CNN) -- A Burmese python slithering through the Everglades proved that her eyes weren't bigger than her stomach, swallowing intact a 76-pound deer.
At 15.65 feet, the python isn't the largest on record. But the size of her prey both impresses and concerns state and federal wildlife scientists and land managers trying to control the non-native species.
"They are large exotic animals that are not naturally from this area," said Randy Smith, spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District. "The potential to wreak havoc on the natural Florida wildlife ... they don't have true enemies."
Contractors spraying exotic vegetation Thursday came across the female python on an island about 20 miles from Everglades National Park, Smith told CNN Tuesday. It was dispatched, by protocol, with a single shotgun blast to the head.
A necropsy conducted by Everglades National Park wildlife biologists showed the python had a girth of 44.1 inches after devouring the adult female deer. The snake normally weighed 139 pounds.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I’d prefer a sandhill season. But I have no problem eating swan.
Options, options - swallowed whole by a snake or chomped into pieces by a bear or cougar or wolf.
The EPA is all about options alrighty. lol
It was dispatched, by protocol, with a single shotgun blast to the head.
And the people who buy and then later release these things should be similarly dispatched. Damn assholes.
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