Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

Python Eats Aligator, Explodes . . .
Python_gator

EXCERPTS:

Alligators have clashed with nonnative pythons before in Everglades National Park. But when a 6-foot gator tangled with a 13-foot python recently, the result wasn’t pretty.

The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole _ and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week.

The species have battled with increasing frequency _ scientists have documented four encounters in the last three years.

The gators have had to share their territory with a python population that has swelled over the past 20 years after owners dropped off pythons they no longer wanted in the Everglades. The Asian snakes have thrived in the wet, hot climate.

"Encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. … And we here are, it’s happened for the fourth time," Mazzotti said. In the other cases, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.

"They were probably evenly matched in size," Mazzotti said of the latest battle. "If the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win."

While the gator may have been injured before the battle began _ wounds were found on it that apparently were not caused by python bites _ Mazzotti believes it was alive when the battle began. And it may have clawed at the python’s stomach as the snake tried to digest it, leading to the blow up.

GET THE STORY.
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed.)

I can’t help but thinking that Toho Studios is going to be coming out with a Pynthona Vs. Gatora film sometime soon.

 

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

26 thoughts on “Biting Off More Than You Can Chew”

  4. Stupid snake. Everyone knows that you start at the tail end when attempting to swallow a gator whole.

  6. I’ve had gator, too, and Steve’s right. Contrary to the joke, it doesn’t taste like chicken.
    It has a texture kind of like chicken but it tastes more like frog or fish.

  7. I’ve never had python, though I have had rattlesnake.
    It *did* taste like chicken.

  11. Idiot snake should’ve waited for the alligator to die. You can’t swallow something with teeth and claws that’s still alive and kicking and not feel the pain. 🙂

  13. “Eww eww eww! To have come upon that scene. ”
    To come upon the SMELL at that scene!

  15. +J.M.J+
    Two dangerous predators killed each other. Yeah, it’s gross, but after watching nature shows that illustrate how dangerous both alligators and pythons are to humans, I don’t exactly feel too bad about it.
    [Pssst! Don’t tell PETA I said that 🙂 ]
    In Jesu et Maria,

  16. Yet another prood in nature of why one of my mottos is:
    Never eat anything as big as your head!

  17. Better to stick with Monty Python. In their world, fake penguins roosting on television sets explode.

  19. I’m from Louisiana, and gator taste like gator, sheesh, totally amazing that people will compare tastes of things. apples don’t taste like oranges do they? then gator tail taste just exactly like gator tail, nothing else.

  20. This is the only site I found that had this story. We were all sitting eating fried fish and my Aunts husband told me about this snake eating a gator. The first thing my husband says is thats why gluttony is a sin. It’s nice to know other people think as we do!

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