Tale of the tape: The fawn weighed 35 pounds; the snake 31.5.
NAPLES — Researchers in Florida say they have found an 11-foot-long invasive Burmese python that had consumed a deer that weighed more than the snake.
The Naples Daily News reports that wildlife biologists tracking the slithery creatures in southwest Florida found one of them had eaten a white-tailed deer fawn.
Biologist Ian Bartoszek says the fawn weighed 35 pounds; the snake 31.5.
Bartoszek said it was the largest python-to-prey weight difference he had measured.
Burmese pythons were brought to South Florida as pets in the late 1970s. They were released into the wild, and have become a problematic invasive species.
White-tailed deer are an important food source for Florida's endangered panthers, so the researchers are concerned the pervasive snakes could also impact the health of the big cats.