Like the video’s caption says, I wish alligators in the Everglades would start acting like this.
Over the past few decades, Florida’s wildlife has been overrun by invasive Burmese Pythons. There are many theories on how they got there, including people releasing their “pets”, snakes tagging along on cargo ships, and an exotic pet trade company suffering a major animal escape, but regardless of how they arrived, there’s no denying the damage they’ve done to the ecosystem.
A 2012 study showed populations of raccoons, possums, marsh rabbits, cottontail rabbits, and foxes had effectively been eliminated and bobcat population had fallen by 87.5% since 1997 in areas where pythons were prevalent, and that study is now over 10 years old. There’s no denying that the pythons have continued to decimate native Florida wildlife, including the alligators that have long been top dog in the swamps.
Well, a video from somewhere in South America (most likely Brazil) has been making the rounds which shows that alligators and their relatives can do more to fight back against these invaders if they team up.
The video starts by showing two Yacare caiman clamping down on each end of a Burmese Python. If you were thinking you’d see a Lady and the Tramp spaghetti moment, let me stop you right here, because these gators were not only competing with the snake, but with each other.
The caiman start pulling the python apart in a brutal game of tug of war before starting to thrash their heads around to try and free it from the others grip, but instead, the snake rips apart, leaving each caiman to chow down on its score.
One gets a much larger piece than the other and swims away quickly so the others in the area don’t get any idea, but my goodness that was kind of tough to watch. Sure, I’m never really rooting for the pythons, but getting torn in half by two caiman is high up on the list of horrible ways to die.
Florida gators, take notes. We’re going to need some teamwork to defeat this python enemy.
