A recent cover story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel announced that the Burmese python - a snake whose natural environment is in southeastern Asian countries - is becoming more common in the southeastern USA. Specifically, the non-native snake (abandoned by exotic pet owners) is commonly found in Everglades National Park, and is expanding its territory to the north and south of this area, threatening many endangered animals (e.g. the Key Largo wood rat, and Key deer). If you'd like to read more about it, click onto this link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flbpythons0306sbmar06,0,7773882.story

Anyway, when I'd heard this recent story, I was immediately reminded of an incident that occurred in the Everglades - back in the fall of 2005 - when an abandoned ten-foot-long Burmese python ingested a seven-foot-long alligator, whole! (Neither animal survived, as the snake perished when its prey struggled and burst its way out of the stomach, while the 'gator succumbed to the gastric juices of the python's digestive system.) Said incident inspired me to draw the following piece of fan art with 'Rocky' the rhino and 'Hubert' the hippo - which I'd given to Fanimal personally (when I'd met him in October of that year, at a convention in Tampa called "Hippopalooza 2005").

Considering the threat that Burmese pythons pose - not only to endangered animals in Florida, but to tourists, local residents and their pets - this image may be just as timely now, as it was when I drew it nearly four years ago...

'Rocky' & 'Hubert' (C) Fanimal
Artwork by Rob Cat

NOTE: This is one of the few drawings in which I've incorporated the rarely-used punctuation mark, the "interbang" (a cross between a question mark and an exclamation point)... Just so you'd know. - R.C.