Florida: American Alligator Vs. Burmese Python?

[dc4teg]

i have strong feeling that the infamous photo of the exploded burm was totally sensationalized by the media.

i highly doubt the burmese python exploded because of that gator. i think some people didn't realize that the head of that burmese python was missing as well...in addition to that big puncture wound where the gator was hanging out of. did that missing head just blow up too?

i think another big ol gator came along and chomped down on that snake.

man will rule the everglades in ten years more so than he does now.

i agree that man will dominate the everglades, if now wild hogs.... but thats another story

[Neal]

It depends. A large adult BP will own an alligator. It takes years for them to get to that size though. If humans don't step in then I say BP, if we step in then, AA.

[MasonC2K]

I voted Gator. Sure the one photo gave it fame. But for that one photo of a Burm owning a Gator, there are more (although hard to find) of Gators owning Burms.

[Lucas339]

man will never own the everglades! there is currently great acts going on right now to improve the everglades and surround areas. there will be great changes to try and restore the everglades the best we can with what we know. i know of several projects that are aimed at native animal renurishment and improvements in water flow. all human impact is minimalized in the area and building will never take place. the FL government just bought half of a huge sugar farm which will be returned to its natural state.

i voted burm. all of you miss an important ecological point with this animal. who cares if they eat each other!! thats not the problem. the problem is you have two very large predators in a small area. both gators and burms will go after similar prey items. this will put a strain on an already bleek ecosystem thus leading to one of two things to happen. here is a graph for thathttp://www.scholarpedia.org/wiki/ima...nsteadt_pp.jpg)
its not rocket science!! if you increase predators, you decreas prey!
either the predators will have to move which will be somewhat harder for a specialist predator (the gator; it needs water to live in) compared to a generalist predator. the humidity through out florida could easily substain the burm. temps....well it really doesn't get that cold but i assume that some northern range would be established during winters.
the other possiblity is extinction. as you increase the number of new species, you decrease the niches that species can live. this can be due to loss of prey or loss of habitat. here is a simple curve to show just that (http://ipmworld.umn.edu/chapters/ecology/Slide7.GIF).

now all of this is fine and dandy in a bubble! what if we have a drought next year? this year is a wet year. we are having a great wet season and everything is looking up. but wet years are usually followed by droughts! (http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarmin...s/image001.jpg). dry years are hard on aquatic animals!

there are several factors that can play out for this. it is not cut and dry as many of you believe. its a very complicated system and we usually don't know exactly what happened until its too late.

[knott00]

Populations of wild animals tend to limit themselves and plateau once they reach a certain level so that they don't eat all of their prey and then the whole species starves. Honestly, I don't think its as big of a deal as people say it is. Sure, something should be done to get these snakes under control, but I'm not worried about the wild population of animals.

Both snakes and gaters are ambush preditors, whoever strikes first would be the winner in that scenario. A snake would be no match for a gator's teeth and massive jaw pressure, and a gator would be no match for a burm's squeeze. Both animals have the ability to sit still for long periods of time and wait for their next meal.

I honestly think that this one picture of a burm "eating" a gator proves only that its possible, not that it is a common occurrence.

[guambomb832]

Although I voted for the Burmese, I think the Alligators might win. But the problem is that there a lot of big alligators in the Everglades already, and since burms just started living in there about 20 years ago, there is not going to be a lot of those monster sized burms, they are usually in the 5-9 feet range. The only way a burmese could win against an alligator is that the alligator is young and the burm is really big or if attacks the alligator before the alligator attacks it, but is then most likely the alligator will win.

[Lucas339]

Populations of wild animals tend to limit themselves and plateau once they reach a certain level so that they don't eat all of their prey and then the whole species starves. Honestly, I don't think its as big of a deal as people say it is. Sure, something should be done to get these snakes under control, but I'm not worried about the wild population of animals.

this only works with natural populations. not populations with a introduced predator.

Both snakes and gaters are ambush preditors, whoever strikes first would be the winner in that scenario. A snake would be no match for a gator's teeth and massive jaw pressure, and a gator would be no match for a burm's squeeze. Both animals have the ability to sit still for long periods of time and wait for their next meal.

the poll is who will own the everglades. not who will eat who.

[TimmyG]

Yes, this is about domination by numbers not one off senarios. I suspect after being reminded of some information I learned in Biology 1013 that the winner will be what ever species can carve out its own niche that the other can not move in on. In this circumstance I would say the Burm Would win becuase it can climb into trees and hunt effectivly on land. Alligators, on the otherhand, can hang out on land and not be bothered but wont get fed that way either.

[WingedWolfPsion]

None of the above.

Burms eat mainly mammals and birds. Alligators eat mainly fish and turtles--a point people tend to forget. Burms do not hunt in the water, usually--Alligators do. While burms would probably take some gators, more gators will eat burms--they'll make a nice food source for the gators, because they're not very fast on land OR water.

The alligator is supremely adapted to the Everglades, and it already eats snakes, albeit smaller ones. Because they are not direct competitors, but are fully capable of preying on each other, I see no reason why they won't both 'win'.