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Alligators have clashed with non-native pythons before in Everglades National Park. But when a 6-foot gator tangled with a 13-foot python recently, the result wasn't pretty.
The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole -- and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week.
The species have battled with increasing frequency -- scientists have documented four encounters in the last three years. The encroachment of Burmese pythons into the Everglades could threaten an $8 billion restoration project and endanger smaller species, said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor.
The gators have had to share their territory with a python population that has swelled over the past 20 years after owners dropped off pythons they no longer wanted in the Everglades. The Asian snakes have thrived in the wet, hot climate.
"Encounters like that are almost never seen in the wild. ... And we here are, it's happened for the fourth time,'' Mazzotti said. In the other cases, the alligator won or the battle was an apparent draw.
"They were probably evenly matched in size,'' Mazzotti said of the latest battle. "If the python got a good grip on the alligator before the alligator got a good grip on him, he could win.''
While the gator may have been injured before the battle began -- wounds were found on it that apparently were not caused by python bites -- Mazzotti believes it was alive when the battle began. And it may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it, leading to the blow up.
The python was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Its stomach still surrounded the alligator's head, shoulders, and forelimbs. The remains were discovered and photographed Sept. 26 by helicopter pilot and wildlife researcher Michael Barron.
The incident has alerted biologists to new potential dangers from Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
"Clearly, if they can kill an alligator they can kill other species,'' Mazzotti said. "There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons... This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win."
"It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top down predator,'' Mazzotti said. Not only can the python kill other reptiles, the snakes will also eat otters, squirrels, endangered woodstorks and sparrows.
While there are thousands of alligators in the Everglades, Joe Wasilewski, a wildlife biologist and crocodile tracker, said its unknown how many pythons there are.
"We need to set traps and do a proper survey,'' of the snakes, he said. At least 150 have been captured in the last two years. The problem arises when people buy pets they are not prepared to care for.
"People will buy these tiny little snakes and if you do everything right, they're six-feet tall in one year. They lose their appeal, or the owner becomes afraid of it. There's no zoo or attraction that will take it,'' so they release the snakes into the Everglades.
A reproducing snake can have as many as 100 hatchlings, which explains why the snake population has soared, Wasilewski said.
The Burmese snake problem is just part of a larger issue of nonnative animal populations in South Florida, he said. So many iguanas have been discarded in the region that they are gobbling tropical flowers and causing problems for botanists, Wasilewski said.
A 10- or 20-foot python is also large enough to pose a risk to an unwary human, especially a small child, he added. "I don't think this is an imminent threat. This is not a 'Be afraid, be very afraid situation."
You can see the picture here
Sun-sentinel
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One minute Jonathan Reed was hiking with his golden retriever in a forest in Seattle. The next, his pet was being torn apart by a "grey" -- an alien being with an elongated head, smelling of rotting fruit.
A scene from a sci-fi film? No, maintains Reed, a former child-developmental psychologist who says he took the alien home and lived with it for nine days in which it communicated via telepathy and was able to pull thoughts from his mind.
Reed and others -- including Uruguayan Rafael Ulloa who says aliens in spaceships spirited away people from New York's twin towers in the September 11, 2001, attacks -- gather in Lima this week for a world extra-terrestrial congress.
Peru has long been a mecca for mystics and there have been abundant reports of flying saucers, especially over the southern town of Chilca. Some locals reckon aliens imbued mud springs there with special curative and fertility powers.
The congress, organised by the Alfa y Omega group that believes a fleet of UFOs will fly to Earth at the end of the world and Christ could use one for his second coming, during its October 6-9 run will pore over photos and grainy films of bright flashes and spooky shapes they say point to alien life forms.
Retired U.S. air force Lt. Col Donald Ware, 69, told a news conference on Tuesday his first contact with aliens was in 1953, when he saw seven spacecraft flying over Washington, D.C.
He spotted no signs of extra-terrestrial life during his service, but said he had seen alien craft eight times since retiring in 1982.
'DETECTING THE VISITORS'
Seeing isn't always believing. Wendelle Stevens, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, said he believed in aliens after having investigated 100 cases, despite never having seen any himself.
Stevens, thought to have the largest archive of photographs of alleged UFOs in the world, says he worked from 1947-49 in Alaska with B-29 planes fitted with special scientific instruments to "detect the visitors."
His work there began the year the U.S. military is believed by some to have hushed up two purported crashes of alien spacecraft within a month. The Air Force denies the stories.
Stevens, who said he did not believe in aliens before his work, said it was his job to debrief the crews of the B-29s and recounted how "the radio frequency spectrum went completely haywire ... and the temperature in the airplane increased. (The crew) looked out and there's a disc next door," he said.
He said the crew shot photographs with four different types of camera, but the military suppressed the pictures. No Air Force spokespersons could immediately comment on his remarks.
One of the most unusual testimonies comes from Reed on his 1996 experience with the alien he came to call Freddie.
Reed, who says he has a bracelet belonging to the extra-terrestrial, said Freddie had skin "almost like that of a pig." It breathed and had red blood, but did not speak. Tests showed he had 46 chromosomes, like humans, but 9 were different and resembled those of dolphins and sea turtles, Reed added.
Aliens enthusiasts and UFO spotters are used to raised eyebrows, ridicule and worse. Reed says he was shot after his alien encounter and blames a "government faction which doesn't want this information out".
But his close encounter with the alien with slanting eyes and a slit mouth "proved to me we are living in a much bigger universe," he said.
Crazyness...
Yahoo
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Go ahead, treat yourself. Check out the latest "chick flick," get a "bikini wax" or enjoy an ice cream -- but be careful about "brain freeze."
If any of that isn't clear, it might be wise to consult the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, which formally defines words that have taken root in American conversation.
Those terms are joined by 15 other new entries that make up the 1,664 pages of the newly published book. So if you're not interested in movies meant to appeal to women, discreet hair removal procedures or running the risk of a sudden shooting pain in the head caused by very cold food, maybe there's another endeavor to catch your fancy.
Try "steganography," the "art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file." That may not be the latest craze, but it's an activity that caught the attention of Merriam-Webster's lexicographers.
"We have editors who spend a part of each day reading magazines and newspapers, looking for evidence of how words are being more commonly used," said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher. "We're looking for words that show up in the contexts that the average adult might encounter."
The new words reflect changes and developments in American society. You could try your hand at being a "cybrarian" (a person who finds, collects, and manages information available on the Internet,) or as a "hospitalist" ("a physician who specializes in treating hospitalized patients of other physicians in order to minimize the number of hospital visits by other physicians.")
The Springfield-based dictionary publisher has an ongoing list of about 17 million entries it monitors. Every year, a few of them make it into print, followed by a succinct definition.
It takes about 10 years for a promising word to get into the dictionary from the time it first gets noticed. But some have a speedy rise to Merriam-Webster legitimacy, depending on the urgency of their meaning and impact
Among this year's fastest climbers is "SARS," the acronym for the severe acute respiratory syndrome that began making headlines just two years ago with an outbreak in Asia.
"That was enough of a public health concern to get it in the dictionary right away," Morse said. "Now, one of two things could happen. Either we'll never hear about SARS again, and if so, I've wasted three lines of type in the dictionary. Or it will come back, and everyone will go to the dictionary in a time of need to see how SARS is defined."
The dictionary is going to hell these days...
Newsday
