As pythons try to hide, they face a new enemy: Possums with GPS collars

[Jilly_in_VA]

Wildlife researchers studying mammals in Key Largo have discovered a potentially groundbreaking — if not heartbreaking — way to locate and kill invasive Burmese pythons, especially the big ones.

A team observing racoon and possum behavior along urban and wilderness fringe of Crocodile National Wildlife Refuge fitted dozens of the mammals with GPS collars, and tracked their locations for months.

In September, about five months into the study, one of the possum collars sent out a mortality signal, triggered by lack of movement — maybe it was hit by a car, maybe a local dog killed it. But then, a few hours later, the collar started moving again.

The researchers had a hunch that the possum suffered a brutal fate.

“That’s the signature signal that they got eaten by a snake,” said Michael Cove, curator of mammals at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, one of the partners on the study. He and his research partners from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Southern Illinois University suspected the snake sat around and digested the possum, and then started moving again.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pythons-try-hide-face-enemy-120000445.html

Bless you, little possum!