They live on small mammals, especially rabbits, but also feed on kangaroos, lizards and carrion.
The snakes, which can grow up to 8 feet long, also eat small mammals and lizards.
Burmese pythons, which can grow up to 23ft (7m) long, eat small mammals, birds and alligators.
But researchers think its origins lie further down the food chain - in plants, small mammals or insects.
They feed on carrion and small mammals in the wild.
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Its decayed teeth would have limited its chances in the wild, but the lynx is an adaptable animal, and may have been able to survive by preying on small mammals.
Dr Brereton added that there was a possibility that some colonies might be wiped out altogether this winter if they had succumbed to factors such as predation by small mammals or other insects.
The study by the University of London for the People's Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society listed tidier gardens and urbanisation as key factors affecting the fall in the number of the small mammals.
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The RSPCA said successful prosecutions relating to cruelty to small mammals such as rabbits and hamsters went up from 97 in 2011 to 354 in 2012, with convictions related to the treatment of farm animals up to 49 from 22.
Their results indicate that all placental mammals arose from a small, furry, insect-eating animal.
These are feelings thought to be confined, if not to humans alone, then to a small subset of large-brained mammals, several of whom are related to humans.
Raymond Highsmith, executive director of the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology, a Mississipi consortium coordinating the ship's research, says there are a lot of unknowns about the plume, but that he fears that if it is oil it could harm the small sealife that bigger fish and mammals depend on for food.
Mammals, he reminds us, have a small number of offspring and nurture them, pouring all their energy and resources into helping them grow up.
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