"The next morning the bobcat returned to cache uneaten eggs in the ground to consume at a later date. That evening the bobcat returned again, but, this time, the python was back on her nest. Weighing about 20 pounds, the feline was clearly aware that the 115-pound python posed a serious threat and, rather than trying to eat more eggs, it padded around the nest at a safe distance for a few minutes before leaving. The next night the camera took a photo of the two predators in a face-off. Apparently, the bobcat felt the clutch was worth fighting for because it returned in the morning and aggravated the python enough to prompt an attack."
20 pounds versus 115 pounds, but the cat is smarter, and the cat — like a wily human — is going after the next generation.
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Nature... finds a way.
as a dog lover, this is disturbing on So Many levels.
Snakes taking over the Entire World!
Cats the ONLY THING standing between us, and a world of Snakyness!!
Cats WILLING to do the job, that Has To Be Done!!!
I keep telling myself, the cat is Only looking after its self interests
But NONE of that changes the fact that we are (appearing to be) beholden.. To Cats!
Speaking of invasive species, I did an iguana hunt in FL a year and half ago. It was a managed hunt with a .22 air rifle.
It was unbelievable how fun that was. We must of bagged at least 50 in and around the canal zone. They were very good eating too.
Eat your enemy. Compost the rest.
Reminds me of two things.
1. Video of a panther (who can swim) taking alligator or croc. I brought it up with my son and he said yes, there are lots of those videos.
2. Capuchin monkeys in the Amazon rain forest using sticks to get the eggs of caimans--again like an alligator. A dance of death for the little monkeys.
Blogger RideSpaceMountain said...
It was unbelievable how fun that was. We must of bagged at least 50 in and around the canal zone. They were very good eating too.
Did it taste like chicken? Serious question.
To assist in going after the next generation bobcats are developing Critical Reptile Theory.
Wiley... like progressives?
Here is a link to the video for those of us that don't sub to the NYT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tIBvxb6oYo
By the way, a possum shows up late in the video, but the eggs are all gone by then.
@Old and Slow
Very much like chicken but the consistency is different. In other words, the closest analogue is frog, which anyone who's had frog legs would be familiar with.
Basically, think frog legs, but way bigger than 'jumbo' sized. Delicious.
gilbar said...as a dog lover, this is disturbing on So Many levels.
Snakes taking over the Entire World!
Cats the ONLY THING standing between us, and a world of Snakyness!!
A pack of wolves would do just fine against a python. But there aren't a lot of wolves in Florida.
This is pinging my Rikki-Tikki-Tavi nostalgia buttons.
Going after the next generation? No, the bobcat is just not eating the provider of free eggs.
The cat isn't smarter, it just wants to eat.
What should scare the crap out of people is 100+ pound pythons in Florida...
Unlikely. It's so obviously unlikely that it only confirms my suspicion that journalism is a profession inhabited by near-idiots, especially the NYT sort of journalism. The sad thing is Punch Junior Junior could not have staffed his paper this way by accident. It must be a deliberate policy. Talk about disinformation... you can't be more misinformed than to read The New York Times.
Here's why it's unlikely -- when I read the cited passage I mentally ticked off the cat species of Central and South America, the continent most diversely supplied with wild felids. I came up with ten, ranging in size from the Guiña cat (about 4.5 pounds) to the jaguar (212 pounds). There are probably more, I didn't bother to check. Central and South America are also blessed with hundreds of snake species, including the biggest serpents on the planet. Most of them lay eggs that predators find attractive and there are certainly many mammalian predators there to be tempted. Yet no reptile species I can name has been decimated or even seriously suppressed by cats.
...the cat — like a wily human — is going after the next generation... "the feline was clearly aware that the 115-pound python posed a serious threat"
So, according Merrick Garland, the cat should have reported the python's threat to the FBI for trying to protect its young?
I've had frog legs, and to me they tasted a lot like chicken. So, since they cost way more than chicken, I haven't had frog legs since.
Good point Q. I suspect you are correct. However, the first order unknown in your model is that the Florida pythons are not trying to survive in their evolutionary habit, so it is possible that they are not sustainable in their battle for survival against the bobcats.
TerriW said...
This is pinging my Rikki-Tikki-Tavi nostalgia buttons.
My immediate thought too. See at about the 26:00 mark
Riki Tiki Tavi
That story almost - almost - made me register with the NYT.
"... the cat — like a wily human — is going after the next generation."
The cat is just going after its next meal. But there do seem to be some wily predators in Florida who are determined to go after the next generation. Disney, I think they are called.
The big snake (boas, anacondas, pythons, et al) hunters have found and ingenious way to hunt them in the Everglades. They've attached tracking devices on the big males and follow them to the female snakes in mating season. I think I read that they killed over 5000 female snakes this last season, a huge increase over the 500 snakes of both genders they killed the year before. No females laying eggs means no invasive snakes being born.
I keep asking my landscaper's crew to eat the iguanas and crabs on my property but they never do. They eat them in their home countries but not mine. Iguanas are a pest. They are a danger to pets, they burrow deep along seawalls damaging them, eat flowering plants and crap all over the place. Gators are another problem. Since they were placed as protected creatures their numbers have exploded. There is hardly anywhere in South, Southeast and Central Florida that isn't infested with gators. As long as the bobcats stay in the Glades it's all good. I hope they curb the invasive snakes introduced to the state by morons.
Addendum: "Yet no reptile species I can name has been decimated or even seriously suppressed by cats."
I probably should clarify that statement. By reptile species I meant reptile in the conventional Linnean sense -- cold-blooded animals covered in keratinous scales. However, in modern evolutionary cladistic taxonomy reptile is a much broader classification that includes the birds. Anyone who is familiar with the spread of cats to the Polynesian islands in the 19th century will be aware of several native bird species driven to extinction by them. So, cats have decimated or suppressed many reptilians, just not the reptilian subjects of this discussion.
Aztec. I'm reminded of something about putting salt on a bird's tail so you can catch him. Something.....something.
Aztec. I'm reminded of something about putting salt on a bird's tail so you can catch him. Something.....something.
I've always thought that chicken tastes like iguana.
We'd need a lot more bobcats than we currently have here in Florida. We've got an unending supply of idiots who think 'exotic' pets would be neat to have until they actually have them for a few weeks. Then they realize they have to manage them, take care of them, secure them. Their dream was to catch the eye of a person who might be attracted to the sort of person who collects exotic things. When pet sitting a boa constrictor becomes a responsibility, the fun is over. They dump them into the nearest intercoastal where they regularly mingle with all of the other creatures dumped in an intercoastal canal or the Everglades.
Simply- we have more stupid people than there are bobcats. I love Florida. But about 10% of our population is legendary.
I say let us put snake and bobcat together
To find out which one’s smarter
Some say snake, but I say no
The bobcat play the snake, like a puppet show
And not me, but some people they say
That the snake are leading the bobcat astray
But I say that the bobcat today
Smarter than the snake in every way
That’s right, the bobcat is smarter
That’s right, the bobcat is smarter
@Richard Aubrey - even the most casual of searches...
https://nypost.com/2018/04/19/python-with-tracking-device-reveals-snake-sex-parties/?utm_source=url_sitebuttons&utm_medium=site%20buttons&utm_campaign=site%20buttons
That's some wild feline purrrrloining.
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