Florida island bird mystery has new twist: Snake cannibalism

SEAHORSE KEY, Fla. (AP) – A Florida island where nesting birds mysteriously disappeared last year is experiencing another confounding event: Snakes are cannibalizing each other.

The Gainesville Sun reports that the birds still have not returned to Seahorse Key, an important nesting site in the Gulf of Mexico for many bird species.

Now a University of Florida researcher has discovered that the island’s cottonmouth snakes that relied on discarded fish scraps from birds as a primary food source have started eating each other.

Researcher Coleman Sheehy told the newspaper that he has witnessed the venomous snakes eating one another.

The island is part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, and biologists investigating the bird disappearance say they still have no answers.