SHARK VALLEY, Fla. (WFLA) — A bicyclist captured a jaw-dropping video of a massive alligator eating a python in the Florida Everglades earlier this week.
“That’s one less python to terrorize the Everglades,” Alison Joslyn wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, Dec. 20.
Joslyn, a longtime competitive endurance athlete who began participating in triathlons in 1987, was cycling through the Shark Valley area of the Everglades National Park when she stumbled across the “special and rare” sight.
“I was cycling the 15-mile loop in Shark Valley, as I love the Everglades and wanted to get out into nature,” Joslyn said. “I’ve also been into wildlife photography since the mid-90s. [I] moved to Miami in 2019 and have been amazed at the incredible nature we have at our doorstep. So I know enough that when I saw the gator and the snake, I realized right away it was something quite special and rare.”
In her Facebook post, Joslyn noted that the massive gator looked sluggish and questioned if it was due to the cold or if it was tired from fighting the snake.
“Gator was quite lethargic and I was wondering if it might be the cold, he was tired from fighting the snake, maybe got bit by the snake, started swallowing the snake and had to stop because it was too big? Other thoughts?” she asked in her caption.
She told NewsNation affiliate WFLA that she estimated the gator to be about 10 feet long. As for the snake, Joslyn said the reptile was “already partway down the alligator’s throat and kind of wrapped around” but said it seemed to be “at least as long as the gator.”
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn 
Photo credit: Alison Joslyn
Joslyn added in her Facebook post that although pythons aren’t venomous, she wondered if a bite from the snake could’ve done damage to the soft tissue in the gator’s mouth as it was “fighting for its life.”
With pythons being invasive in Florida, Joslyn said she was aware of the havoc they wreak on the Everglades’ ecosystem. So when she saw the alligator-snake fight, she “couldn’t help but think, ‘Score one for the good guys!'”