Cameras near Everglades capture unbelievable encounter between bobcat and python: 'That's a win for the home team'
Invasive species can wreak havoc on ecosystems, outcompeting native plants and animals for resources and throwing off the food chain.
Wildlife cameras near outside the city of Naples, Florida, caught an American bobcat preying on an invasive Burmese python, Good News Network reports, citing earlier reporting from Gulf Coast News.
The Burmese python is one of the largest snake species in the world, growing to an average length of six to nine feet. The snakes are tan in coloration with dark splotches and a pyramid-shaped head. They live in and around water and are native to Southeast Asia.
Because they are so large, they have few predators, outside of humans, and will eat a variety of prey. The USGS has linked the invasive species to the decline of multiple species in Everglades National Park.
According to the USGS, a 2012 study found that populations of raccoons had declined 99.3%, opossums 98.9%, and bobcats 87.5% since 1997. Marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and foxes effectively disappeared over that time."
However, the bobcat has not given up the fight for its home territory.
"A 25-pound cat killed and cached a 52-pound python? That's a win for the home team," said Ian Bartoszek, a wildlife biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. Bartoszek notes that the ecosystem is bouncing back as other predators are beginning to see the snakes as a potential food source.
Wildlife conservationists have also stepped in to help balance the ecosystem. "Spy pythons" were implemented in Everglades National Park. These collared males lead scientists to female pythons and their nests since females can lay up to 100 eggs at a time. The hope is to remove both before they can further impact the ecosystem.
Allowing invasive species to prosper unchecked can have disastrous long-term effects on biodiversity. There are currently 36 threatened or endangered species within Everglades National Park, so controlling the python is important to their successful preservation.
If you're inspired by the bobcat fighting back to take control of its ecosystem, you can look into ways to take local climate action, too.
Florida residents can hunt and humanely kill pythons on public land, or they can report any pythons to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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