Across the USA, invasive and exotic animals, plants, insects and diseases wage a daily war on our native fauna and flora............The "Invaders"" typically have the upper hand as they find themselves free to wreck havoc without the neutralizing impacts of the predators that keep them in check in their native lands..............No where is the "battle-royale" between "exotics and natives" as intense as in sub-tropical Florida where there are 500 invasisve animals and plants on the loose, "strangling" and compromising the biodiversity of our ecosystems..................One of the most dramatic battles between exotic and native that one will ever see played out on a Naples, Florida Golf Course recently where a giant invasive Burmeese Python snake attempted to strangle the life out of an American Alligator...........These battles are not a one sided contest...........There are times where the Python(especially in a pond scenario) can drown the powerful Alligator............In the instance below, with solid footing for the Gator, a killing move proved fatal for the Python..............While enveloping the Alligator and seemingly in a position to crush the reptile, the Alligator rallied and bit of the head of the invasive snake with its powerful jaws...............""By preying on native wildlife and competing with other native predators, pythons are seriously impacting the natural order of south Florida's ecological communities," explains the National Park Service, which has been working to manage the invasive snakes since 2002".................. ""Burmese pythons will likely never be eradicated from the area"................ "Unsurprisingly, the python proliferation has led to a notable decline in the native mammals that make up the snakes' preferred prey"............ "But in recent years, scientists have also expressed concern that other reptiles – and even other snakes – are at risk, too"

https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/predator-vs-prey/only-in-florida-gator-and-python-battle-plays-out-on-a-golf-course

Only in Florida: Gator-and-python battle plays out on a golf course

Only in Florida: Gator-and-python battle plays out on a golf coursedavid Mo

BY David Moscato  JANUARY 25 2018Golf is sometimes accused of being a boring sport, but that's certainly not the case when two of Florida's top reptilian predators decide to pick a fight right there on the green! Earlier this month, golfers at the Fiddler's Creek Golf Club in Naples snapped photos of one such encounter.THE EXOTIC BURMEESE PYTHON SEEMS TO HAVE OUR AMERICAN ALLIGATOR IN A FULL BODY CRUSH.....IGNORING NEARBY GOLFERS

"'Wild' day on the 10th hole today!" wrote Richard Nadler on Facebook. "That's an alligator and a Burmese python entwined. The alligator seems to have the upper hand."

In his snapshots, and another photo posted by Carolyn Maxim, the snake is wrapped partially around the gator's body, while the gator has caught part of the python in its jaws. Not a great position for either one of them...

A BATTLE ROYALE,,,,,,,,,,,,EITHER THE ALLIGATOR OR THE PYTHON MIGHT VANQUISH THE OTHER

Moments like this golf course face-off are an eye-catching sign of a deeper conflict going on in the state of Florida, of two reptilian predators vying for dominance in a very disturbed environment. Right now, it's not totally clear which one – if either – will come out on top.

Florida hosts a long list of invasive species, but Burmese pythons are among the most worrisome. At an average of 2-3m (6-9 ft) and a maximum recorded size in the state of over 5m (17ft), according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC), these Asian snakes are apex predators and perhaps the only species in the state besides humans that can threaten a fully grown gator.

GATOR WINS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,FULL JAW CLAMP ON VANQUISHED PYTHON

It's not known how often these pythons go after alligators – they much more commonly eat small mammals and birds – but it's definitely not unheard of. You might even recall the famous case of the snake that literally burst after swallowing a big specimen.