One of Florida’s most ominous creatures was caught snacking on its most loathsome, and researchers don’t know if the curious meal choice may become a beneficial norm.
University of Florida scientists stumbled upon a four-top of vultures devouring Burmese python eggs in the dense underbrush of the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area in Broward County.
It is believed to be the first documented case of a native Florida bird preying on an invasive python nest.
“It was definitely an interesting observation,” UF invasive species expert Melissa Miller said.
The incident occurred in 2023 but was published this year in the journal Reptiles & Amphibians, which noted that the only other documented instance of python eggs being eaten by a predator was in 2021 when a trail camera captured a bobcat munching on python eggs in the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Like the scientists who witnessed the bobcat’s mettle in egg thievery, Miller and her colleagues were tracking Burmese pythons as part of an ongoing radiotelemetry study where so-called “scout snakes” are fitted with transmitters and followed.
Will Florida pythons leave their nest eggs?
In the case of the pilfered eggs, the researchers had returned in June to a known nest to collect the eggs before they could hatch. Typically, female pythons will stay with the nest through hatching and while it’s largely unknown how often and why a python would leave its nest, it’s “generally considered a rare occurrence,” according to the study.
The nest was well concealed in thick grasses, which leads researchers to believe the vultures used scent to find it.
Because the vultures fled quickly when researchers approached it’s unknown if they were turkey vultures or black vultures, but turkey vultures are best known for olfactory foraging. There were at least 17 eggs in various stages of consumption. The female python was found submerged in shallow water about 40 feet from the nest.
“Vultures primarily consume carrion with eggs typically constituting an opportunistic or seasonal food source,” Miller said. “However, python nests that are located above ground versus in a burrow are likely more susceptible to vultures.”
But the female python would either have to leave the nest or be harried off it by whatever wanted her eggs. Despite vulture diets being widely studied, not much is known about the vultures scavenging on snake eggs, the study says.
What other Florida predators will prey on python eggs?
In the case of the bobcat, the 20-pound feline was seen by the trail cam returning to the unguarded nest several times in one night for a snack before eventually encountering the female python who had returned to the nest.
The bobcat was undeterred, returning more than once until a morning face-off that included the bobcat taking a couple of swipes at the 115-pound snake.
“This is the first documentation of any animal in Florida preying on python eggs, and the first evidence or description of such antagonistic interactions at a python nest,” U.S. Geological Survey researchers wrote in a 2022 study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
There is precedent of native animals learning to consume, and even thrive, on non-native species.
The Everglades snail kite, a raptor that was spiraling toward extinction, was buoyed when it started eating an exotic snail that is larger and more fecund than the native gastropod the bird typically dined on.
The snail kite’s nesting season was extended, and it hatched stronger hatchlings that grew to bigger adults. A UF study found one more remarkable unintended result; the snail kite underwent a rapid microevolution to have larger beaks more adept at digging deep into the larger snail.
While the invasive snail may be good for the snail kite, its appetite for large amounts of aquatic vegetation, fruits and vegetables makes it one of the world’s “worst invaders”, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
What is the impact of pythons in the decline of animals in the Everglades?
Burmese pythons are a particularly insidious invasive species because of their appetite for anything furry, scaled or winged and their proliferation in the Everglades ecosystem.
A 2012 study estimated that pythons were responsible for a decline of 85% to 100% of the population of medium-sized furry animals in Everglades National Park.
Miller said she hasn’t heard any other accounts of vultures preying on python eggs, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Projects like the radiotelemetry scout snake program continue to provide “novel insights” on the biology and behavior of Florida wildlife.
Kimberly Miller is a journalist for the USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA. She covers weather, the environment and critters as the Embracing Florida reporter. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida vultures caught eating invasive python eggs in rare first
Reporting by Kimberly Miller, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
