Researchers in Florida were shocked when they found a Burmese python swallowed a 5-foot long alligator whole.

‘It’s definitely shocking, it was my first time ever seeing an event like that, I’ve never seen a python with something like that in it,’ geoscientist Rosie Moore told the Daily Mail.

The snake was about 18 feet in length, Moore said.

The python had been euthanized by workers in the field. They called in more researchers to dissect the snake when they realized it had a large object in its stomach.

‘We thought it was either a deer or an alligator,’ Moore said.

In a video posted on TikTok, Moore and other researchers can be seen slicing open the python and slowly pulling out an entire alligator. The snake had only barely begun to digest the reptile.

The snake began to go viral after Moore posted the dissection video on social media. The researcher said she hopes the clip brings more attention to the snakes: ‘It honestly surprised me how little people knew about the invasive pythons in Florida and their impacts on our native populations down there.’

The Burmese python is classified as an invasive species in Florida. It first came to the Sunshine State in the 1970s, after exotic pets escaped or were released by owners.

Thriving in habitats like Florida’s iconic Everglades wetlands, Burmese pythons compete with local predators and prey on local wildlife, including endangered species like the Key Largo woodrat.

Pythons have become such a problem to the Florida ecosystem that the state government has begun holding ‘python challenge’ events, inviting hunters from out-of-state to help remove the invasive species.

The state has recorded over 17,000 pythons removed since 2000, but the population continues to grow.

Earlier this year, the largest python ever recorded was discovered in Florida. The massive serpent weighed 215 pounds and was over 17 feet long.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, a missing woman was discovered in the stomach of a massive python in October.

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The snake was about 18 feet in length.