Intact, Adult Deer Found inside Belly of a Snake

I lived in Florida for a few years. One thing that I didn't like about the place was that it was simply dangerous to go hiking in much of the state, especially off-trail. Too many creatures there see humans as a food source, or at least a threat from which one didn't have to flee. Spiders the size of your hand, water moccasins in tubing rivers, alligators in suburban ponds...I mean, there's a good reason why the state bird is the mosquito. It represents what you're up against.

Case in point: wildlife officials in the Everglades found a Burmese Python that had swallowed an adult-sized deer. The doe's body caused the snake to swell to a 44-inch girth. No, it didn't kill him. A shotgun blast did that.

Link -via Glenn Reynolds | Photo: South Florida Water Management District

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The Mosquito should be Alaska's state bird. Alaska's another state that has a lot of souvenir stores like you speak of. Full of moose poop lip balm, moose poop earrings, bald eagles carved out of reindeer antlers, miniature bear traps marketed as mosquito traps, etc.

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You should make it clear in the article, then, that the mosquito isn't the OFFICIAL state bird but joked about as being such.

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Well, legally speaking, yes. But you can buy all sorts of stuff (t-shirts, mugs) that claim the mosquito as the state bird.

Here in Texas, there are stores devoted entirely to Texas stuff, such as pie pans shaped like the outline of the state. Florida is the only other state I've seen that has stores like that.

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Florida's state bird is a Mockingbird, not a mosquito. We do have a lot of mosquitoes though...