A Florida bobcat has managed to take down a Burmese python in what wildlife biologists are calling a win for native Everglades predators.
Scientists are still investigating how and when local predators face off against the invasive snakes, but the finding hints that native species are learning to take advantage of the competition as a potential food source.
The snake's remains were found near the city of Naples in December 2022 by wildlife biologist Ian Bartoszek of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Since 2013, he and his colleagues have used radio trackers to keep tabs on male Burmese pythons, and during breeding season, these male "scout" snakes lead researchers to fertile female snakes and their eggs. From there, researchers remove and euthanize the reptiles in an attempt to cull the invasive population.
On that chilly December day, Bartoszek's team was tracking Loki, a 13 foot (4 meters) long, 52 pound (23.5 kilogram) scout snake. They expected to find Loki holed up with a female python. Instead, they found his freshly slain body, with the head and neck gnawed off and buried beneath pine needles nearby.
"It was a bit sad and a bit exciting at the same time," said Bartoszek, who had tracked Loki through six breeding seasons. "We sort of treated it as a bit of a CSI crime scene."
The team immediately started to look for clues as to what had killed the massive snake. The way Loki's neck had been chewed and his head buried suggested a large cat — either a bobcat or a Florida panther — as the culprit.
Bartoszek contacted wild cat expert David Shindle, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, who set up a trail cam near the kill site in case the cat came back for its buried meal. The next morning, it did — and its behavior was caught on video.
"All of a sudden, out of the background, an adult bobcat comes walking in across a log," Bartoszek described. "You could see it sort of sniffing the air, probably picking up on our scent, seeing what information it was clueing-in to, and basically returning to the kill site."
Burmese pythons have been known to eat bobcats, but Bartoszek suspects this particular bobcat seized an opportunity to pick off Loki while he was incapacitated. A cold snap had hit southern Florida a few days before the scientists found the snake's remains. And since male snakes are usually out and about looking for females during breeding season, the chilly weather may have left the cold-blooded Loki stunned and sluggish, far from his usual warm burrow and unable to fight off the predator.
Working on the front lines of these wildlife studies offers the chance to observe new and interesting predator-prey interactions, Bartoszek told Live Science. "It felt like 'score one for the home team,' where our native animals are fighting back," he said. "That's a good sign."
These kinds of predation events are likely becoming more common in the Everglades, Bartoszek said. His team found the remains of a different scout snake after another cold snap earlier this season, this one likely killed by a black bear.
Researchers are still collecting evidence and looking for trends in how predators like bobcats and bears might be turning the tables on pythons.
"There's a bit of a pattern emerging that — and you'd expect as much — over time, the ecosystem is rebalancing itself. It's fighting back," Bartoszek said. "These native predators are recognizing Burmese pythons as a new food source and are able to take advantage of some of their vulnerabilities."
