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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Rare video shows a hungry Florida bobcat raiding the unguarded nest of an invasive Burmese python for eggs and a battle that followed in the thick of Big Cypress National Preserve in the Florida Everglades.
It’s believed to be the first time any animal in Florida has preyed on python eggs, and the first evidence of any animal in the Everglades fighting back against a Burmese python.
The trail cam video was captured by U.S. Geological Survey cameras starting in June of 2021 and for the first time, show a bobcat eating eggs from a Burmese python nest.
The native bobcat can be seen on June 1 approaching the unguarded nest and eating the eggs. The bobcat even returned the next day and digs at the nest and bites more eggs.
When the bobcat returned later that same day, the python was back and the bobcat steers clear, but not for long.
On June 4, the bobcat returns as the trail cam captures the bobcat fighting with the nesting python.
The U.S. Geological Survey report states “Over the course of several days, the male bobcat can be seen “consuming, trampling, caching, and uncovering the eggs” while the python is gone, but also confronting the much larger snake and trading blows on at least on occasion.”
When biologists arrived, they moved the female python and found the nest had been destroyed.