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"To determine number of deer consumed, we grouped hoof sheaths and dewclaw sheaths based on size and color," researchers said. "The presence of twelve hooves and ten dewclaws confirmed that the snake had consumed at minimum three individual white-tailed deer."
Researchers were able to gather information from the remains to determine two of the deer were fawns while the third was an adult doe.
One of the authors of the study Scott Boback, an associate professor of biology at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, told Live Science the python likely consumed the deer within a 90-day period.
He added that consuming such a large amount of food in a relatively short period of time was unusual for the animal.
"If a python is capable of eating three deer in three months, what else are they eating that we don't know about?" Boback said. "We don't even know how many of them are out there [in the Everglades.]"
Other studies have blamed the presence of the invasive pythons for drops in raccoons, opossums, bobcats and rabbits and other mammals in the ecosystem.
"It just begs the question, 'How often are they eating these things?'" Boback said.