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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:19 Not only are we having problems with the Burmese pythons in the Everglades,
00:23 but now there's a population of Nile monitors living outside of a Fort Myers area.
00:30 [Music]
00:39 From what I understand, this population is in the thousands.
00:43 Now, these monitors are just as bad as the pythons.
00:48 [Music]
00:57 Monitors in the wild love to eat crocodile eggs.
01:00 If they were to venture into the Everglades and get a taste for alligator eggs,
01:04 they could put a big hurting on the alligator population.
01:07 [Music]
01:26 Now, here in Homestead, where American crocodiles reside,
01:31 we're terrified that monitor lizards will get into their nesting areas
01:36 because there aren't that many crocodiles left in Florida,
01:40 maybe around 2,000 non-hatchlings,
01:43 and the monitors can really do some damage to the population numbers.
01:49 [Music]
02:18 Another aspect to the monitors that nobody ever even thought of
02:22 is that monitors just love eggs, period.
02:26 And they certainly would and could eat python eggs.
02:31 And it hasn't been recorded as yet,
02:34 but I'm certain that that type of behavior can and will happen in the Everglades.
02:39 [Music]
03:02 When a female python lays her eggs,
03:05 she coils around them and guards them until they hatch.
03:09 I don't even think an adult monitor can penetrate that fortress.
03:14 But many times there are some eggs laid to the side or whatever,
03:17 and certainly a monitor can grab that.
03:20 Now, when these eggs are hatching or ready to hatch,
03:23 the female python can feel this coming on inside.
03:28 So she will loosen her coils, and when the babies start hatching,
03:32 she's done her job, she crawls away,
03:35 leaving this nest of hatching pythons vulnerable to predators.
03:40 And male monitors have a fantastic sense of smell,
03:47 and they could probably smell a nest of pythons hatching for over a mile off.
03:53 And they will hone right in on it,
03:56 and they will eat, oh, probably a dozen or more eggs and/or baby pythons.
04:02 So whoever knew that we'd be seeing Burmese pythons in the Everglades Nile monitors?
04:08 Who would have ever thought that these predators would be here,
04:12 not only that, preying on each other?
04:15 So maybe the monitor will keep the Burmese python in check.
04:20 [Music]