I got your dead rodents right here

[urbpan]

This anaconda is putting a lot of effort into asphyxiating and drowning a rat that was already dead.


White-footed mice (Peromyscus sp.) are the most common mice native to North America. They are very cute, with bigger eyes and a bigger proportional head (not shown here) than house mice. Unfortunately they have adapted to entering buildings just as their less cute cousins have, causing many of the same problems. Additionally, white-footed mice are the primary host for the larva and nymph stages of the black-legged tick (Ixodes sp., including the deer tick), the parasite that carries the Lyme disease bacterium.

In fact, ticks are born (hatched) disease-free, and pick up the bacterium from the mice. After the larva has fed on a diseased mouse, it drops off, molts and becomes an infected nymph. Most cases of human and dog Lyme disease come from nymphs, because they are so small that they miss inspection, and often stay attached for the full 24 hours required to pass the disease along.

I don't know who ate half of this mouse, but I thank them.