Bobbing for Python Eggs
The Burmese python has infested the Florida Everglades and environs for years. The invasive species, escapees from exotic-pet owners, face no native predators and so have flourished and multiplied, threatening the habitat of the creatures that did evolve here.
Now at least one wildcat native to the region is fighting back. Ecologists have observed the native bobcat (Lynx rufus) feasting on eggs in an unguarded nest of the big fat creepy snake (Python bivittatus).
Last year a team led by Andrea Currylow of the US Geological Survey placed a motion-sensitive camera near the nest of a large female python to study the reproductive biology of these serpentine interlopers. Within a few hours of installation, the snake slithered off and a bobcat showed up, hankering for an omelet.
“We were completely floored,” Currylow told the New York Times. “We had no idea that the nests of these snakes were being depredated.”
The wildcat returned three times that night for another snack, and the following morning it came back again to hide uneaten eggs in the ground for later consumption. This time the python was back on her nest. The feline weighs an estimated 20 pounds, while the giant snake weighs almost 100 pounds more; the cat left.
The next night the standoff escalated when the bobcat returned, prompting a lunge by the snake and a counter-swipe by the cat. The scientists later investigated to find that 42 eggs had been destroyed with another 22 that appeared to be viable (they weren’t, as the team tried and failed to incubate them).
If bobcats are developing a taste for python eggs, it would be very good news for the ecosystem. The scientists don’t yet know whether snake eggs are the hot new diet trend among Florida wildcats or if it’s just the one, daring kitty with a craving. Their research appears in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
The bobcat isn’t the only predator feasting on python eggs. Some human Floridians are downing them hard-boiled and baking them into sugar cookies. Yum.
Photo credit: US Geological Survey
