Jun 24 2012

That reminds me…I should have some lunch

Categories:

Organisms

by PZ Myers

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29 comments

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1

Janine: History’s Greatest Monster

24 June 2012 at 12:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

You better be careful while eating, PZ.
2

pipenta

24 June 2012 at 12:59 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Jebus pops for dessert?
3

ChasCPeterson

24 June 2012 at 1:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Gator outgaped.
4

Glen Davidson

24 June 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Claws add a certain zing to one’s meal.

Glen Davidson
5

hotshoe

24 June 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Not so much a joke in reality, when the science shows those pythons have destroyed mammal population in the Everglades. Raccoons, opossum, bobcats and foxes, all gone.

When even the folks in my quilting group know about the python’s devastation, you know it’s a real concern.

Interesting article on the Nature Conservancy’s program to stop the invasion: train and organize snake spotters and responders.
6

naturalcynic

24 June 2012 at 1:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

BUR.
@5: I hope that the photographer didn’t just let a python that big get away?
7

Shplane

24 June 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@hotshoe

What, just because some lazy, untalented animals can’t compete in an open market, we’re going to start abusing the poor pythons? What are you, some sort of COMMUNIST?
8

Sili

24 June 2012 at 2:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

They speeded it up? I thought Youtube allowed 10-hour videos now.
9

rturpin

24 June 2012 at 3:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Is there any realistic chance that the Nature Conservancy’s program can work? Have we ever eliminated a invasive species in an area where it thrives and has a toehold? And without introducing other invasive species that we come to regret just as much?

I suspect the Burmese python is now a feature of the everglades every bit as obdurate as kudzu in the American south.
10

TGAP Dad

24 June 2012 at 5:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

And if you thought the Burmese pythons were bad…I give you the African Rock Python, Florida’s newest slithering friend! Next to him, the Burmese is as innocuous as a teddy bear. Makes me glad I live up north, where these things can’t (for now) survive.
11

wanstronian

24 June 2012 at 5:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Erm – how is the alligator still alive and kicking, when its head is 3 feet inside a snake?

Can alligators breathe out of their arse?
12

rturpin

24 June 2012 at 5:57 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Alligators can go without a breath for half an hour or more.

If that gator is smart, it will squirm and crawl right out of the other end of that python’s digestive track. ;-)
13

Skepgineer

24 June 2012 at 6:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

>Alligators can go without a breath for half an hour or more.

Perhaps when their metabolism is at its slowest resting point, but certainly not during a life and death struggle.
14

chrisv

24 June 2012 at 7:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Another example of an all-loving, benificent god who just happens to get its ghouly rocks off witnessing countless incidents of pain every minute of every day world without end amen. With this kind of all-lovin’ and merciful god, who needs a devil?
15

JohnnieCanuck

24 June 2012 at 8:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

If God is Omnipotent, then there is nothing the Devil can do that is without God’s tacit approval.

Looked at in this way, Satan/ the Devil is but an aspect of God the Almighty.

Lucky for humans, the being we imagine to be responsible for all the evil we see is indeed imaginary.
16

rturpin

24 June 2012 at 9:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Skepgineer:

Perhaps when their metabolism is at its slowest resting point, but certainly not during a life and death struggle.

I wouldn’t bet on that.
17

hotshoe

24 June 2012 at 11:42 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Is there any realistic chance that the Nature Conservancy’s program can work?

Dunno.

Have we ever eliminated a invasive species in an area where it thrives and has a toehold? And without introducing other invasive species that we come to regret just as much?

Yes, we have.

Feral pigs have been eliminated from at least one national park by a program of fencing the park boundaries and then intensive hunting of all the pigs inside the fence.

Golden eagles took over the top spot as predators in the Channel Islands after DDT destroyed the bald eagle population there. But golden eagles preyed on the native island fox, which the bald eagles had previously left alone, and drove the foxes almost to extinction. A three-pronged program of reintroducing bald eagles, captive breeding and release of foxes, and trapping and relocating goldens inland has returned the island fox to something like normal prevalence.

So it can be done.

But what the successful programs seem to have is the ability (by virtue of isolation/fencing) to prevent outer remnants of the invasive species from re-invading the area. Florida in general and the Everglades in specific won’t have that isolation, so they may not be able to clear pythons and keep them cleared out.

I suspect the Burmese python is now a feature of the everglades every bit as obdurate as kudzu in the American south.

Maybe. They could be eradicated statewide but it would require a major commitment of resources.

And it would require the pet-snake industry to stop being part of the problem. No surprise, they refuse to self regulate and are suing the federal government over what they claim are unfair regulations on python sales and transportation across state lines.
18

AussieMike

25 June 2012 at 1:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Watching that makes me gag!
19

madtom1999

25 June 2012 at 3:54 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

wanstronian
I dont think the gator is alive – would you swallow something that could rip your guts open with its claws?
Its hard to tell from the speeded up video but the movement in the lower abdomen that looks like breathing is probaly due to air in the gators lungs being forced down by pressure at its head and chest.
The feet kicking is due to similar pressure and other mechanical manipulation or post mortem twitches.
20

ajrcrawford

25 June 2012 at 5:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing.”

Seriously, how does the python even digest such a meal?
21

davem

25 June 2012 at 5:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Clearly his mum didn’t tell him about bolting his food. He’ll get indigestion, for sure…
22

dancaban

25 June 2012 at 6:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Wafer thin mint sir?
23

carolw

25 June 2012 at 7:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

What I wonder is, is that a really small gator, or a terrifyingly huge python? The former, I hope.
24

Aquaria

25 June 2012 at 8:49 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Cool!

Well, in a disgusting way. But still cool.
25

rturpin

25 June 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Thank you for those examples, hotshoe.

But what the successful programs seem to have is the ability (by virtue of isolation/fencing) to prevent outer remnants of the invasive species from re-invading the area.

That does seem to be key.
26

Gvlgeologist, FCD

25 June 2012 at 10:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

My plan for the elimination of invasive spp. is to find them useful for something, then make it illegal to harvest them. It doesn’t even have to be true.

Air pototoes? If you smoke them, you get high.

Pythons fed off of Everglades animals? Delicious. And their hides make great belts/shoes/purses/hats/etc.

Sea lampreys in the midwest? Great leather (I think that may even be true).

Just watch the numbers drop.
27

drummer25

25 June 2012 at 2:05 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

D’you want fries with that?
28

adamreith

25 June 2012 at 4:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

“My plan for the elimination of invasive spp. is to find them useful for something”

It’s been tried with the destructive South American nutria in Louisiana. The state’s famous chefs were challenged to create a tasty recipe for nutria such as the one that was so delicious it nearly led to the extermination of the red drum (“Blackened Redfish”).

The cunning plan was a sad failure: not even Chef Paul could make the nasty things fit to eat. This could have been foreseen by noticing that not even the Cajuns living in the nutrias’ preferred habitat bother to eat them. If Cajuns can’t make it taste good, it ain’t edible.
29

tierra de antilopes

27 June 2012 at 7:14 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

…and all the time I kept imagining the alligator starting to eat the python from the inside, to finally emerge triumphant in all his reptilian glory…

Maybe next time.