Animal experts in Florida have revealed they came across a gigantic Burmese python with an even bigger appetite while researching a study.
So hungry was the snake that it went back for seconds and thirds, eating a doe and two fawns, researchers determined.
It is likely that the snake ate the animals over a period of about 90 days.
The killer reptile, which is native to South East Asia but is an introduced species in Florida, stretched almost 16-feet and weighed 105 pounds.
Burmese pythons kill by wrapping their massive bodies around their prey and squeezing them to death.
The man who led a team of experts in studying the animal after it had been caught and killed by wildlife officials said the find raises questions about the reptiles.
''If a python is capable of eating three deer in three months what else are they eating that we don't know about,' Dickinson College associate professor in biology Scott Boback asked Live Science.
He then added something that could send shivers down the spine of every South Florida resident or visitor.
'We don't even know how many of them are out there,' Boback said.
The 16-foot long female python was likely hiding out in the water when it attacked the three deer, the professor's study suggested.
When all three animals came to the water to drink, the powerful snake would have sprung into action.
It was caught and euthanized on June 3, 2013. A necropsy, or animal autopsy, revealed an empty stomach but intestines packed with poop.
Researchers found 14 pounds of fecal matter containing hair, bones, teeth and hooves inside the snake's intestine.
After examining the undigested remains, experts said it appeared as thought the animals would have been aged about one-year, one-month, and two weeks old.
Boback said the ravenous reptiles have been known to eat a number of smaller to medium sized animals across the Everglades, and that there was even one example of when one chowed down on an alligator.
Music: "River of Io" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: DailyMail , Live Science , Bioinvasions Records
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
So hungry was the snake that it went back for seconds and thirds, eating a doe and two fawns, researchers determined.
It is likely that the snake ate the animals over a period of about 90 days.
The killer reptile, which is native to South East Asia but is an introduced species in Florida, stretched almost 16-feet and weighed 105 pounds.
Burmese pythons kill by wrapping their massive bodies around their prey and squeezing them to death.
The man who led a team of experts in studying the animal after it had been caught and killed by wildlife officials said the find raises questions about the reptiles.
''If a python is capable of eating three deer in three months what else are they eating that we don't know about,' Dickinson College associate professor in biology Scott Boback asked Live Science.
He then added something that could send shivers down the spine of every South Florida resident or visitor.
'We don't even know how many of them are out there,' Boback said.
The 16-foot long female python was likely hiding out in the water when it attacked the three deer, the professor's study suggested.
When all three animals came to the water to drink, the powerful snake would have sprung into action.
It was caught and euthanized on June 3, 2013. A necropsy, or animal autopsy, revealed an empty stomach but intestines packed with poop.
Researchers found 14 pounds of fecal matter containing hair, bones, teeth and hooves inside the snake's intestine.
After examining the undigested remains, experts said it appeared as thought the animals would have been aged about one-year, one-month, and two weeks old.
Boback said the ravenous reptiles have been known to eat a number of smaller to medium sized animals across the Everglades, and that there was even one example of when one chowed down on an alligator.
Music: "River of Io" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: DailyMail , Live Science , Bioinvasions Records
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
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