Alien vs. Predator....in the Everglades

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4313978.stm

Bloody hell that snake is big

Michael.

 

Yet another reason to avoid Florida!

 

Oooh pointy.

 

I went to Florida a few years ago to visit a friend of mine who was doing a PHD in something biological at the university in Gainsville. We had a wonderful time seeing the alligators, playing with baby manitees and doing all the usual Florida wildlife things.

In the university they had a young (baby) alligator and I was discussing it with the research students who were looking after it. It was an incredible little thing, snap, snap, snap. I couldn't imagine anything else out there getting near it, or wanting to. The researchers told me, however, that a snake could kill and eat it. At the time I didn't believe them, although they said that "they had it on good authority".

More recently, I saw a tv programme where a hungry leopard took on a large crocodile. The battle took place in the shallows. The croc was bigger and stronger and I thought that the leopard would have no chance. However, eventually the leopard got on the croc's back and killed it. The crocodile only had one basic tactic which was to keep snapping at the leopard. The leopard kept out of reach and 'played' the croc like a mongoose playing a snake. It was a vivid example of the superiority and evolutionary advantage of the mammalian brain. (Of course one could say that when the brain gets to human size it can become an evolutionary disaster - big enough to wipe itself out with technology but not big enough to solve the problems it causes.)

Regards
Steve