Watch: Gator Carries Dead Python Through Everglades Canal

SOUTH FLORIDA — An Everglades City resident captured a rare sight on video: a large gator swimming through an Everglades canal while carrying an equally large, dead python in his mouth.

Carl Nicholson shared videos he took of his encounter July 24 on his Facebook page. (Watch the video below.)

“There’s a gator with a big python in 29 canal,” he can be heard saying in the video. “Big dead python. Big gator, too. He can’t even take it under (water) — but he’s trying.”

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The video shows the gator bringing the python the edge of the canal. It’s not clear if the gator killed the python or if it died some other way.

In a comment on the video, Nicholson said, “I’d say a car took it out, then the gator finished the job!”

He also shared a second video that shows the gator trying to eat the python at the water’s edge.

Patch contacted him for more information about the experience.

Burmese pythons, which aren't native to Florida, are mostly found in the Everglades. There, they prey on birds, mammals and other reptiles. A female Burmese python can lay 50 to 100 eggs at a time, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

FWC encourages people to remove and humanely kill pythons on public and private lands.

The 2022 Florida Python Challenge, an annual 10-day event hosted by the agency in the Everglades, runs Aug. 5-14 this year.

Competitors are required to take online training through the state and register in advance. They could win thousands of dollars in prizes as they remove the invasive species from the Everglades.

Those who participated in the 2021 Florida Python Challenge last year removed 223 pythons from the wild.

Watch Nicholson’s video of a gator carrying a dead python through the Everglades: