5-Foot Gator Found in Stomach of 18-Foot Burmese Python in Florida Everglades

A video went viral on social media showing a 5-foot alligator being pulled from the stomach of an 18-foot Burmese python found in the Florida Everglades.

Rosie Moore, a Florida-based geoscientist, took the video and shared it on TikTok and Instagram.

Moore was among the team of scientists who examined the python and discovered the fully-intact gator inside its stomach.

She says that because Burmese pythons are required to be euthanized in Florida, the snake was turned over to a research lab for scientific sample collection.

This python was euthanized by those who found it, Moore says. The viral video she posted shows the process of a post-mortem examination called necropsy, which is performed on many euthanized animals like Burmese pythons.

Pythons became invasive in Florida after they were brought into the state as pets and then abandoned in the wild by their owners, wildlife officials say.

Since 2000, more than 17,000 wild Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida, where they are a destructive presence for native species, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

More than 230 pythons were removed from the Florida Everglades this year as part of an annual competition to eliminate the invasive species from the South Florida wetlands preserve.

Florida wildlife officials said that 1,000 hunters from 32 states and as far away as Canada and Latvia removed 231 Burmese pythons during this year's 10-day competition known as the Florida Python Challenge.

Matthew Concepcion won the $10,000 top prize for removing 28 Burmese pythons. Another hunter, Dustin Crum, won a $1,500 prize for removing the longest python, a snake that measured over 11 feet.