New Article: City Dwelling Reticulated Pythons

Top article as always.

Question:
In this article about retics, you said "The largest meal reliably documented to have been taken by this (or any snake) seems to be a 130 pound impala antelope; this reported by James Oliver of the Bronx Zoo."

But in the article "Big Snake Meals" you say "The largest meal reliably documented to have been taken by any snake seems to be the 130 pound impala eaten by an African rock python, P. sebae in South Africa(recorded by W. Rose, 1955)."

So did a retic also eat a 130lb impala, or is there an error in one of the articles, or am I just confused?

On another note, the scrub python (morelia amethistina) also makes it way into houses, garages and sheds in Far North Queensland, and those guys grow to maybe 6 or 7 metres. From what I have read and heard, they are pretty common up there. A zookeeper in Cairns said (claimed?) that they recently removed a 5m specimen that was living in her ceiling. Scary!

I wonder though, is it not possible for a snake this size to take a human? A keeper in Darwin was telling me that there have been reports/myths/legends of the olive python (liasis olivaceus) taking aborigine kids. He also claimed that a friend's olive python pet had swallowed the owner's young daughter up to her waist before they stopped it.

Maybe these are 2 other man-eaters that could potentially be added to your list?
 
Hi,

Thanks for the kind words and for pointing out the mistake. An African Rock Python consumed the 130 lb impala. The reference comes from The Giant Snakes, p. 84 (Clifford Pope. A. Knopf: NY, 1965). The book is long out of print but try to get hold of a copy if you haven't seen it; you would enjoy.

In the same book there is mention of a 24 foot long retic that consumed a 120lb pig and a 105 lb donkey. The passage is worded so that the meals seem to have been taken in a short span of time, but unfortunately the actual sequence is not made clear.

Good points on the Olive and Scrub Pythons; some interesting references in Mr. Pope's book as well. I've seen a few photos of huge ones that have taken dogs and wallabies; have heard similar stories as you mention re human predation but have not seen anything definitive. I wouldn't put it past an especially large specimen, although they are of a more slender build than Burmese and retics.

One thing I noticed was that the large ones I've handled seemed to have a constricting strength all out of proportion to their size..possibly had to do with the fact that most were wild caught (noticed that with other species as well); anyway, I have no doubt that either would be capable of killing a person.

Thanks, best, Frank
 
findi said:
I have no doubt that either would be capable of killing a person.
Click to expand...

Killing them, yeah, I agree.
Swallowing them? Well, that is probably the realms of myths and legends.

I have read that the major sticking point (no pun intended) is the width of human shoulders relative to how wide it can open its mouth.

I saw a doco some time ago, probably a Nat Geo doco, exploring the science of snakes swallowing a human. They had cool CGA as well, so it must have been recently. Anyway, one interesting point they made was that if the snake swallowed an adult human feet-first then it would have no problem with the width of our shoulders.

Of course, swallowing a child is no problem at all, given that they swallow goats, deer, and impala.

On another note, what is your opinion on monster snakes still existing somewhere in the remotest reaches of the jungle? Maybe Titanoboa size? Maybe the size that early explorers reported of 100ft?

Like a 25ft croc, I'd also like to believe that there's a 50ft snake lurking out there. :D
 
Hi,

Well, technically they don't stop growing... Bronx Zoo had a $5,000 reward posted for a 30 foot long snake of any species; went uncollected for almost 100 yrs (now withdrawn...economy and all, I guess!). During my time there we purchased 1 contender collected in Borneo, a retic, but she was "only" 21 feet or so; died at appx 24 feet in length. 33 feet is sometimes given as maximum "semi-accurately" measured; a few fairly reliable stories from naturalists in S America re anacondas, some huge skins but they stretch. A friend who spent a few yrs in Guyana, and who had worked prof with large snakes for decades, observed several anacondas that could be record breakers, but these were in deep rivers where collection is next to impossible. Several that he did catch were in the 20 foot range, and thicker than I'd seen in Venezuela.

Well, the Amazon Basin still holds surprises, lets hope...Best, Frank
 
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