‘Brave’ bobcat attacks 120-pound python and eats its eggs, Florida trail camera shows

With a well-placed trail camera, wildlife researchers captured a bobcat fighting a nesting Burmese python in the Florida Everglades, and eating its eggs, photos show.

Over the course of several days, the male bobcat can be seen “consuming, trampling, caching, and uncovering the eggs” while the python is gone, but also confronting the much larger snake and trading blows on at least on occasion.

WATCH: A 20-pound bobcat fights a 120-pound python

The photos were taken as part of a research project at the Big Cypress National Preserve from June to September 2021, but were recently published in a study in the journal of Ecology and Evolution.

Researchers did more than just capture compelling images of an intense face-off between two predators.

According to the team, their photos are the first documented instance of a bobcat — or any Florida predator — targeting a Burmese python nest. It’s also the first time anyone has documented a Burmese python defending its nest.

The team closely observed and documented the bobcat’s behavior, with much of the action taking place between June 1 and 4, the study shows.

The first day, the cat arrives to find an undefended nest and spends several hours feasting on eggs, then leaves only to return just before midnight to trample the nest.

It continues this pattern until the mother python returns.

The bobcat observes the nesting snake until the fourth day, when it comes within striking distance and for several minutes the cat swipes and bats at the python, dodging as it lunges in defense.

Researchers estimate the male bobcat weighed in at around 20 pounds, while the python was likely 120, according to the study.

Given the massive size difference, the bobcat is lucky it survived, lead researcher Andrea Currylow told National Geographic.

“Luckily, [the python] wasn’t interested in eating,” Currylow, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist, said. “But man, that’s one brave bobcat.”

The team went to inspect the nest on June 15, moved the python from its nest and collected the remaining eggs, 64 in total, the study read.

Most were “inviable or destroyed,” but researchers set 22 “damaged but potentially viable” eggs aside and incubated them – though those eggs failed to hatch.

Of the 64 eggs in the nest, none hatched, for which the bobcat is largely responsible.

For experts, the bobcat’s campaign against the python is a promising sign: a small and unexpected victory for native wildlife against a highly destructive invasive species.

Deemed “one of the most concerning invasive species in Everglades National Park” by the U.S. Geological Survey, Burmese pythons have devastated the natural ecosystem, reducing populations of raccoons and opossums by 99%, and bobcats by 87%, in parts of the park.

Additionally, foxes and at least two species of rabbit have “effectively disappeared” wherever the pythons are established, according to the USGS.

“When you get interactions like this and see the native wildlife fighting back, it’s like a ray of sunshine for us,” Ian Bartoszek told National Geographic.

An ecologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Bartoszek said it’s rare for native species to fight against the pythons.

“In 10 years of tracking snakes, I can count on one hand the number of observations,” he told National Geographic.

Currylow believes the bobcat’s behavior isn’t an isolated incident, but a sign of more to come.

“The native species are learning, they’re adapting, [and] they’re able to be more resilient to an invasive species,” she told the outlet.

This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 2:09 PM with the headline "‘Brave’ bobcat attacks 120-pound python and eats its eggs, Florida trail camera shows."