Man Eating Snake

[Gos Hawkng]

A friend just emailed me these pictures

[NGuruve]

haha thats a reticulated python and they have eated several people in the past !!!!

[LouLou]

Thats a fake it done the rounds on all the reptile forums a few months ago. Did bring up some interesting discussion about the human body and the difficulty snakes would have with it if not huge.

[NGuruve]

im that particular one may be fake but belive me a 30ft reticulated python can awallow a adult human 20ft african rock pythons swallow adult impala's and i feel that this would be just as difficult

[LouLou]

I am fully aware retics can get rather huge average size being 15-20 ft recorded known length as far as i am aware 32ft. Nowhere in my post did it say a snake cannot eat a human its not possible, i said that the piccy is a fake and that we had some interesting discussions about how difficult the human shape is. and the last part of my sentence i believe said "if not huge" i think that a 30ft retic comes into the classification as huge and even a 20ft african rock.

[Gram]

ive read a few discussions on this and most experts recon even a very large snake would have trouble,its the shoulders,the head goes in fine but the snake cant manouvre its jaws over the shoulders,impala and such although with the antlers an akward shape are pretty sreamline when the legs and head ard folder back.There have been a few rock pythons found dead with antelope antlers poking out the side of them:cry: so even they are not without risk

[Sandeep]

I have kept large Indian rock pythons in the past and am saying with assurance that a Human is one of the easiest quarry to swallow. Its because the jaw muscle of the snake donot need to extend more than 2 feet. The only difficult part being the shoulder.

Now compare this to an Impala or in this case that I have witnessed a calf ( 2.5 feet tall at shoulder ) in my village where the snake had to stretch beyond 3 feet as the legs donot fold beyond a point. To swallow a 5 feet man all you need is a 12 feet snake....any of the constrictor species.

Just as a piece of Info..... The officials in Mangalore - South India had trapped a 17 feet King Cobra that had swallowed an 8 Feet Rock python. Size found as it later regurgitated due to all the stress during trapping. I had seen this snake much after it had swallowed ( 2 years ) But it was one of the most awesome sights..... It was released after 4 years or so.:rolleyes:

[LouLou]

ive read a few discussions on this and most experts recon even a very large snake would have trouble,its the shoulders,the head goes in fine but the snake cant manouvre its jaws over the shoulders,impala and such although with the antlers an akward shape are pretty sreamline when the legs and head ard folder back.There have been a few rock pythons found dead with antelope antlers poking out the side of them:cry: so even they are not without risk

yes exactly what was discussed the shape of the head and shoulders especially as the "normal" way a snakes pray are taken is head first and the human shape lacks the streamline shape other pray items have, a bad example i know but a typical food item for smaller snakes kept in vivs are rats and mice with the streamline effect from head onwards.
i have seen only discussions about the antlers poking out the side of pythons and have only been able to see pictures, but the snake died from the injury, If you do not mind i would be interested to get further information from you or even if you could point me in the correct location of this i would appreciate it.

And the info regarding snakes eating other snakes it happens quite often in the hobby with the smaller snakes corns for example, sibling corns living in the same tub of very similar size, one has eaten the other (feeding accident we suspect) so i am not surprised the king ate the python (personal opinion) looking at the sizes you gave and scaling them down to compare them to the size of the corns i am babbling on about. the corn that ate the other one regurged it and died, but then snakes are a very streamline animal no limbs and no sticking out shoulders to work around even if the result was ufortunatly death to both. ok i have babbled enough and i apologise just my 2 pence sorry

EDIT: I dont personally agree with having sibling snakes in the same viv btw and i dont feed adult snakes together, if my adult snakes are sharing the same viv they are fed seperately, but that is a personal opinion.

[Barbary Boy]

i once got eaten by a snake! not a nice experience i can assure you!

[Paddy1]

i once got eaten by a snake! not a nice experience i can assure you!



i saw me mate get bitten of his 14 foot burmese that was bad enouh lol

[Gram]

i have a 6.5" Tiawan beauty snake ive been bitten off it didnt really hurt at the time her teeth are so sharp it was like a scalpel,but was quite painfull half hour after

[NGuruve]

I am fully aware retics can get rather huge average size being 15-20 ft recorded known length as far as i am aware 32ft. Nowhere in my post did it say a snake cannot eat a human its not possible, i said that the piccy is a fake and that we had some interesting discussions about how difficult the human shape is. and the last part of my sentence i believe said "if not huge" i think that a 30ft retic comes into the classification as huge and even a 20ft african rock.
haha sorry okay i get your point and do agree about them having difficulty and it would be an excepionally large snake to be able to swallow a human but its possible:supz:

[Sandeep]

snakes eating other snakes it happens quite often in the hobby with the smaller snakes corns for example, sibling corns living in the same tub of very similar size, one has eaten the other (feeding accident we suspect) so i am not surprised the king ate the python (personal opinion) looking at the sizes you gave and scaling them down to compare them to the size of the corns i am babbling on about. the corn that ate the other one regurged it and died, but then snakes are a very streamline animal no limbs and no sticking out shoulders to work around even if the result was ufortunatly death to both. ok i have babbled enough and i apologise just my 2 pence sorry



King Cobras only eat other snakes.... I have een them eating venemous russels vipers - 3 in all in less than an hour. King Cobras donot bite like other venemous snakes as in ... They hold on to the victim and move the jaws to the head of the victim (snake) This results in a massive dozes of venom being pumped into the victim. These bites are also called dog bites...

I am yet to catch a wild one... I have handled venemous ones kept n captivity... But never a wild one... It will definitely be an experience.