Invasive Burmese Python jaws larger than previously thought

Invasive Burmese Pythons hunt and swallow animals whole. And each the slithering creature eats helps it grow.

New research published in the journal Reptiles & Amphibians — Big Pythons, Big Gape, and Big Prey — found the python’s gape, or maximum size of its mouth opening, is larger than first thought.

Ian Bartoszek, a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, captured a Burmese Python stretching and extending its jaws around an adult white-tail deer, eating it whole.

The problem is that these invasive creatures have become native wildlife vacuum cleaners in the Florida Everglades.

“The animals in this study equated to 10.2 inches, which correlates to about 32 inches of circumference that that animal was able to consume,” explained Bartoszek.

To give you some perspective, that’s larger than a soccer ball. The bigger the snake, the bigger the prey these hunters can stuff into their mouths.

Using their enormous gape, these pythons throw the ecosystem off balance by eating food meant for native species.

“85 species in the bellies of the Python,” added Bartoszek. “You start to remove marsh rabbits from the Everglades equation or white-tailed deer; those are cascading effects the Everglades system is rebalancing itself now.”

Bob Bramblet is a contractor who hunts pythons for the South Florida Water Management District. He wasn’t surprised to learn of the study’s results.

“An 18-foot python was found with a five-foot gator inside of it; also a 15-foot python that was actively eating a 77-pound deer,” he said.

Native wildlife feels the squeeze of the invasive pythons’ voracious appetite.

“Our native wildlife has no choice — adapt or die,” said Bartoszek.

The Conservancy also told WINK News Reporter Paul Dolan about a python caught that had the hooves of three different deer inside it at the same time.

To help wildlife officials remove the pythons from the Florida ecosystem, click here.