It's just when I saw that snake stretched out, I saw a lot of filet mignons side-by-side.
Perhaps a pair of boots or a golf bag.
—”I saw a lot of filet mignons side-by-side.”
I’ve never thought much about python anatomy ...
But suspect three would be many, many rib eyes and not many filet mignons???
Pythons are indeed high in mercury level. About 4 ppm on average.
To put this in perspective: levels in food above 1.5ppm are not considered suitable for consumption.
Apparently the Everglades are an area high in (inorganic) mercury. This mercury is converted to organic methylmercury by bacteria. Subsequently these bacteria are consumed by protozoans, protozoans by small invertebrates, and so on.
Because of methylmercury’s relatively high solubility in gut and neural membranes it gets more concentrated in each step of the food chain.
Pythons are apex predators, so a high mercury level is not that unexpected, but the levels were substantially higher in comparison with gators in the same area.
The reasons are not clear, and speculative:
Either they’re eating a lot of alligator to get [levels] that high or — more likely — pythons are very incapable of ridding themselves of methylmercury that they get exposed to in their diet.
Snakes have a lot of bones too... In old Florida we use to eat rattlesnake - which tastes like chicken. Gator tail’s mild too. And wild pig? Parasites on four feet...