A new study has shown that the invasive Burmese pythonsare disrupting the food chain in Florida’s Everglades National Park.

Experts said that the invasive Burmese pythons are affecting food chain in Florida’s Everglades National Park. An earlier research had noted that there was an increase in the Burmese python population in 2013 but new estimates showed that the number is falling.

An investigative team from the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Florida conducted anexperiment. They put special tracking devices on 26 rabbits and allowed then to run free in the park. At the beginning, rabbits settled in and even began breeding but once the temperature rose, the rabbits began to disappear, according to Robert McCleery a University of Florida biologist.

The team found that the Burmese pythons were eating the rabbits faster than the Easter icons could reproduce and even faster than research estimates.McCleery reported that approximately 77 percent of the rabbits were consumed by Burmese pythons. The study has raised concerns over the impact of the snakes on the ecosystem.

The study was published online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Academy B.