Snake vs. gator: It's a dead heat
By Curtis Morgan Knight Ridder/Tribune Thu Oct 6, 9:40 AM ET
A meeting between two of the largest and fiercest predators in the Everglades--a Burmese python and an American alligator--ended in a scene as rare as it was bizarre.
The 13-foot snake and 6-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of either creature.
When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in Everglades National Park, the gator's tail and hind legs protruded from the ruptured gut of a python, which had swallowed it whole.
For scientists, exactly how the clash occurred is a compelling curiosity. More important, the encounter provides evidence that giant exotic snakes not only have invaded the Everglades but also could challenge the native gator for a perch atop the food chain.
more...
