Crocodiles and pythons, in fact, there is not much to say; that is, in the comment area of some articles about crocodiles, I often see some users comparing crocodiles with giant non-venomous snakes such as large pythons, so I thought of publishing an article (plus some pictures) to express my personal views on the conflict and interaction between crocodiles and pythons.
The world's heaviest non-venomous snake, the forest hopper and caiman: There are three kinds of caimans in the world today - paraguayan caiman (20 kg) spectacled caiman (30 kg) and bottlenose caiman (50 kg) Paraguay caiman and spectacled caiman are both prey of the forest hopper, and the spectacled caiman makes up about 8% of the food composition of the plain forest hopper (38 kg for females and 8 kg for males) about 8% of which is about the same as the capybara, and the spectacled caiman makes up only 4% of the food composition of the rainforest foresthopper, which is larger than the plain foresthopper.
If you exclude the glasses caiman in the picture below biting the head of the female forest crab, resulting in "the crocodile head is entangled, the crocodile bites the head of the crab, the grasshopper hurts, the entanglement is even worse, the crocodile jaw is tighter, the grasshopper is more painful, and the entanglement is tighter... The emergence of this situation, the female crab can deal with a spectacled caiman crocodile.
However, it is worth mentioning that the forest hopper preys on two kinds of caimans is not stable; the forest hopper female is small, the yin and yang decline, even the adult male forest hopper will be threatened with life when facing these two kinds of caimans; the following four pictures are all caimans hunting and killing the forest hopper.
Here to mention the relationship between the black caiman and the forest hopper, the largest carnivore in South America - whether it is an ordinary female forest hopper against an ordinary adult male black caiman, or the largest 5.78 meters 115Kg rainforest forest hopper recorded in the scientific research record [saying that the forest hopper can grow to eight meters and ten meters I suggest that the headline user of this one put forward the snake that was hit by the car in a car advertisement to say something] To the largest black caiman who has a complete skull. The forest hopper is not the opponent of the black caiman, and can only be regarded as the food of the black caiman.
(A black caiman swims across the river with a slain forest crab and tears it apart in the grass.)
Florida Burmese Python V.S American Alligator: The Burmese python is the best of all the large snakes that invaded the Florida marshlands - reticulated pythons, forest borers, red-tailed ants, African rock pythons and yellow water nymphs, counting the Burmese pythons A total of six large non-venomous snakes, the first five species are because they can not adapt to the temperature population of Florida at this latitude has not been small, and the Burmese python, a first-class protected animal of our Great Heavenly Dynasty, is unique in the swamp with excellent adaptability and devouring ability. And the Burmese python is also believed to be responsible for the sharp decline in the number of small and medium-sized mammals in the swampy wetlands of Florida! After the Burmese python invaded Florida, the frequency of raccoon observation decreased by 99.3% in the 2003-2011 road survey totaling 56,971 kilometers, 98.9% and 87.5% in the opossum and short-tailed cat, respectively, and no rabbit was found.
In the marsh of South Florida, the fatality rate of Burmese pythons is as high as 77%. In other words, the burmese python has a hunting success rate of 77%!
But if you want to talk about the lethal conflict between adult Burmese pythons and adult American alligators, it can really be described by one word: gluten eating
The vast majority of adult Burmese pythons are almost a slightly resistant gluten in front of adult American alligators. A little thought can find out why the Burmese python is often eaten by the American alligator as gluten - the size difference is too much; to be precise, the order of magnitude is too much, the order of magnitude of the crocodile is much larger than the order of magnitude of the large non-venomous snake, the snake's ability to swallow is also limited, 4 meters 5 meters of snake gives people the feeling of "this snake is so big" But in fact, a four-meter Burmese python may weigh less than 30 kilograms, and the 6-meter-long wild Burmese python may be only 50 kilograms or more stout Among the millions of adult American alligators in Florida, more than 100 kilograms and 200 kilograms are not a minority, which is obviously out of reach for Burmese pythons that swallow crocodiles that are about the same weight as themselves.
(After all, the belly of the snake is not a rubber glove, and the snake not only specializes in the rib structure in order to devour the prey, but even half of the lungs are atrophied and degenerated to make enough internal space for the stomach.) ）
Next up are some pictures
Bottlenose caimans prey on yellow water nymphs
Cone-nosed crocodiles prey on emerald treehoppers
Bay crocodile eats reticulated python (crocodile length four meters python length five meters)
The Nile crocodile hunts African rock pythons
Olive pythons pestered Australian freshwater crocodiles
Burmese pythons devour juvenile American alligators
African rock pythons hunt pygmy crocodiles
summary:
Crocodile and python interactions usually kill who [Caiman headshots kill females larger than themselves] Females can prey on spectacled caimans and Paraguayan caimans, but these two types of caimans can kill males, which are larger adult black caimans and pose a life threat to adult females.
Large crocodiles such as the American alligator, the Nile crocodile, and the bay crocodile have exceeded the devouring limits of large pythons (forest crabs, reticulated pythons), and large crocodiles can prey on large pythons; while pythons, although they are not adults, can prey on small crocodiles such as Paraguayan caimans, pygmy crocodiles and Australian freshwater crocodiles and large crocodiles that are still juvenile.
It's just that adult large pythons have no way to do anything about adult large crocodiles, and they can survive almost because the large crocodiles are hungry at the time, and the desire to hunt is not strong. But even small crocodiles can push back or even kill large pythons by attacking vulnerable parts such as their heads and necks; as in the picture I just posted of caimans killing bushhoppers.
In addition to the natural enemy relationship between the world's heaviest snake, the forest hopper and the caiman crocodile ( natural enemy relationship – that is, an individual at any stage of growth of one species can be preyed upon by another species and occupies a fixed proportion of the food composition of another species, and the predator side can control the number of predators to some extent. Except for that, the other basically does not constitute a natural relationship.