Joslyn named the gator Chomp and kept tabs on him for a few days.
A video showing an American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) eating an invasive Burmese python (Python bivittatus) in the Florida Everglades is making its rounds on social media. The video, captured by Alison Joslyn, a mobile volunteer at Shark Valley shows the alligator chewing on the dead snake for several minutes before it swims away with the snake in its jaws.
Joslyn named the gator Chomp and kept tabs on him for a few days.
“Early this morning, I found Chomp still holding tight to his prized python carcass, now 3 days after appearing with it for the first time,” Joslyn wrote on Facebook. “Safe to say by the smell that it’s decomposing nicely. I passed by on my bike 3 times and interestingly he seemed to be a bit further away each time. In the last photo, look closely and you’ll see his head just around the corner. By the afternoon tram tour alligator, snake and smell had all disappeared. I wonder if he ate his fill and someone else nabbed it? Likely we will never know.”
The American alligator was the apex predator in the Florida Everglades but now shares that title with the invasive Burmese python. Both reptiles sit atop the food chain and both species have been documented eating each other.
American Alligator and Burmese Python Information
The American alligator is one of the few predators that can capture, kill and eat an adult Burmese python. They can grow to 12 to 15 feet in length and can exceed 500 kg (1,100) in weight. While the species was listed as Endangered in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act, conservation efforts that included captive breeding of the species has enabled it to be removed from Endangered status in 1987.
Cottonmouth Snakes Are Eating Burmese Pythons In Florida Everglades
The Burmese python is one of the largest snake species in the world, capable of exceeding 20 feet in length. It is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List in its native Southeast Asia but is an invasive species in Florida. The largest Burmese python caught in Florida measured 19 feet in length. It was captured in 2023 in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve. As adults, only the American alligator poses a threat to this species in Florida. As hatchlings and juveniles, they are preyed upon by other species, including the cottonmouth snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti), the Gulf Coast indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi), and the bobcat (Lynx rufus).
