PEMBROKE PINES, FL (RNN) – Professional trapper Mike Kimmel interceded Friday night in a battle between two vicious predators because the alligator was losing the fight.
A video shared to Martin County Trapping and Removals and Martin County Wildfire Rescue page shows the trapper grabbing a 10-foot python by the head and pulling it and the gator out of the water.
The video taken by Kimmel's friend, Jack Hubbard, has been viewed more than 51,000 times.
The nighttime battle happened near Everglades Holiday Park in south Florida, the Miami Herald reported.
The python was attempting to suffocate a small gator by constricting it but let the gator go when Kimmel lifted it out of the water. The men then bagged the python.
Kimmel said on Facebook it's the third gator he’s saved from a python.
"Please watch and share. Not many people know of the war we are fighting down here," the post reads.
The Burmese python, an invasive species from southeast Asia, has taken up residence in the Florida Everglades, wiping out some native mammals and severely impacting others, New York Times reported.
The snakes, which are voracious eaters and prolific breeders, have so far stymied officials' efforts to eradicate them.
The South Florida Water Management District sponsors a python elimination program, which pays some hunters to kill the snake.
The district announced the thousandth python kill recently, but there are many more.
Tens of thousands of Burmese pythons are believed to be lurking in the Everglades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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