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Researchers stunned after python swallows - and regurgitates - massive meal

A python has swallowed and regurgitated a deer weighing more than the snake's own body weight in what is believed to be the largest python-to-prey ratio ever documented.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida's biologists are researching the effects Burmese pythons were having on the Everglades.

In 2015, they discovered a bloated 3.3 metre female python. The researchers captured the snake and moved it to an open area.

Biologist Ian Bartoszek told reporters on Friday, at the time the crew "had a couple of short guesses" as to what was inside the serpent's belly.

Researchers from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida came across this bloated Burmese python in 2015. Source: Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Researchers from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida came across this bloated Burmese python in 2015. Source: Conservancy of Southwest Florida

"It was stressed," he added.

The crew watched on in awe as the snake regurgitated a young white-tailed deer.

"This was traumatic for everybody," Mr Bartoszek said of the rescuers watching the snake cough up the fawn.

The team weighed both animals: The fawn was 15.88kg while the snake came in at 14.29kg. It meant the fawn was 111.1 per cent the mass of its predator.

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The python begins to regurgitate a fawn. Source: The Conservancy of Southwest Florida
The python begins to regurgitate a fawn. Source: The Conservancy of Southwest Florida

"We do believe it is the highest python to prey ratio yet documented," Mr Baroszek said.

"You kind of have to see it to believe it. These are the photos that speak a thousand words."

He added that the photographs were evidence of the snake's impact it was having across the Greater Everglades Ecosystem.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida's research into the python's effect on the ecosystem, and the one documented regurgitating the deer, will be published in the March 2018 issue of the Herpetological Review.