A ball python from Leinwand’s lab. CREDIT: Yuxiao Tan. Compared with the hearts of pythons who hadn’t eaten, the fed pythons increased their own mass by close to 25 percent after eating.

Native to South and Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons are an invasive species impacting native wildlife in Florida's Everglades.

But captured pythons, at the top of the food chain, are listed as unsafe to eat by both the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Burmese pythons are not native to Florida and destructive to its ecosystem. Can you hunt and shoot the invasive snakes? Will Florida pay you?

Burmese pythons wreak havoc across the Florida Everglades. The invasive snakes eat just about anything. Do they eat alligators? What animals eat them?

Giant, invasive Burmese pythons are moving north from the Florida Everglades toward Georgia, taking out hundreds of native species.

Burmese pythons wreak havoc across the Florida Everglades. The invasive snakes eat just about anything. Do they eat alligators? What animals eat them?

Burmese pythons have proliferated across more than a thousand square miles of Florida. How many of the invasive snakes live here and where?

Florida's 1.3 million alligators enjoy a varied, opportunistic diet, including snakes. Do gators eat invasive Burmese pythons, too?

After users identified the snake as a harmless ball python, the user placed the snake in a container before reuniting it with its owner, free of complications. Do ball pythons like to be cuddled?