I'm not sure if this helps or not. I havn't been able to archive anything about "Baby' the 400-pounder passing away; and these are snippits about big burms ... (By the way - 27 feet - 100 punds?)

respects Wes

(Taking a moment to remind you that there are some honkin' big newts out there too!)

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SUN-TIMES (Chicago, Illinois) 01 January 04 World's largest snake outclasses local hero (Brenda Warner Rotzoll)

Baby isn't biggest anymore.

The 403-pound, 27-foot Burmese python who lives at the Serpent Safari reptile zoo and store in Gurnee Mills mall apparently has been supplanted by a nearly half-ton, 48-foot-long reticulated python captured by villagers on the island of Java in Indonesia.

But Baby is still the largest snake most Americans are ever likely to see up close and personal. It's one long trek to the remote village of Curugsewu, where residents captured their snake last year but only recently put it on display in a primitive zoo.

The reticulated python in Java measures 48 feet 8 inches long and weighs 983 pounds, a local government official said. The Indonesian newspaper Republika said the snake eats three or four dogs a month.

Reticulated pythons are the world's longest snakes. They are capable of eating animals as large as sheep and have been known to attack and consume humans.

The species is native to the swamps and jungles of Southeast Asia.

Baby weighs 403 pounds when hungry and has tipped the scale at as much as 450 pounds when she has just eaten, something she does only five times a year. Then she chows down on as many as seven live chickens.

The 2003 Guinness Book of World Records listed Baby as the world's heaviest snake ever captured, while the longest snake measured 32 feet.

Baby was raised by Serpent Safari owner Lou Daddono, who has been fascinated by reptiles since childhood. His zoo and store, opened in Wisconsin Dells in 1996 and at Gurnee Mills mall in 1998, grew out of the nonprofit Reptile Education and Adoption Center he founded in 1987. REAC offered free reptile pets to responsible families and schools.

Daddono has lectured at hundreds of schools in the Chicago area, seeking to help students understand evolution and the need for conservation.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-snake01.html



INDIANAPOLIS STAR (Indiana) 24 May 04 Reptile show has fear factor and fun factor (Jon Murray)

…

But Sibley and others caution potential owners of large snakes like Sue to consider the commitment. They take more attention than smaller snakes, and they grow to hundreds of pounds.

Sue is 3 years old now but could grow 8 more feet and live several decades, Sibley said. The largest Burmese python Sibley knows of is a 28-year-old in Gurnee, Ill., that is 28 feet long and weighs more than 460 pounds.

…

http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/149254-6766-009.html



LODI NEWS-SENTINEL (California) 27 August 04 Camp Hutchins kids meet giant snakes, lovable lizards (Jennifer Snyder)

…

The biggest snake, Banana, was the Burmese python, which is 27 feet long and can eat three to four large rabbits a month. The python weighed 100 pounds, yet Python Ron wielded him over his shoulders with seeming ease.

http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2004/08/27/news/02_python_040827.txt



GRANT COUNTY NEWS (Williamstown, Kentucky) 02 September 04 Snake eyes (item & photo by Rebecca Russo)

Ryan Barrett, of Dry Ridge, seems to be saying a quick prayer as a 275-pound Burmese python approaches. Barrett was one of nearly 40 people that attended "Second Nature for Kids" presented by Howard Schwartzman on Saturday, Aug. 28 at the Grant County Public Library. Schwartzman, who formerly worked for Wyoming Game and Fish Department, now lives in the area and offers programs on 17 different topics including dinosaurs, incredible eggs, spiders of the world, crocodiles and alligators.

http://www.grantky.com/articles/2004/09/01/news/news05.txt



NEW YORK POST (New York) 29 September 04 Seventeen-Foot Fugitive Python Found

Bay St. Louis, Miss. (AP): Baby, the pet python, is safe at home. The 17-foot Burmese python, missing since Thursday in Bay St. Louis, came out of hiding Monday when the smell of dinner became too much to resist. Baby loves rabbits and that's what snake owner Keith Berg used as bait.

…

A new cage for Baby is being built in Mobile and Berg said the snake is moving there as soon as it is completed, but in the meantime, he plans to make sure the bathroom door stays shut.

http://breakingnews.nypost.com/dynamic/stories/L/LOOSE_PYTHON?SITE=NYNYP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT



SUN-TIMES (Chicago, Illinois) 06 October 04 It's 'see you later, alligator' to man's creeping problem (Mark Brown)

…

Joan Singer, manager at Serpent Safari, told me she's "95 percent certain" she can find a home for the gator at either her facility or with an alligator attraction in the Wisconsin Dells.

At Serpent Safari, Deese's gator would have to share the spotlight with an albino alligator, a 10-foot Nile crocodile, and a 27-foot, 400-pound Burmese python billed as the world's biggest snake living in captivity.

…

I wouldn't want to speculate.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown06.html

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