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What starts as seemingly unrelated deaths in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park and Elfin Cove and Florida’s Everglades National Park grows into a conspiracy that threatens life on the planet.

The attack occurred Sunday afternoon at the Flamingo Marina in Everglades National Park, according to a National Park Service news release.

They have eclipsed the alligator as apex predator and are disrupting fragile ecosystems like the iconic Everglades National Park by preying on native species like bobcats, racoons and opossums.

Since at least 1979, Burmese pythons have slithered over the southern tip of Florida, including Everglades National Park, gradually expanding their range to nearly a third of the state.

Though it is threatened, this parcel is “the most important fragment of pine rockland left outside of Everglades National Park,” says Lauren Jonaitis, senior conservation director for the Tropical Audubon Society.