Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Found this in yahoo news waht do you think?

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2003/12/29/latest/15355Worldsla&sec=latest

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&e=9&u=/ap/indonesia_giant_snake

Sorry those are 2 different links

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=817&e=1&u=/ap/indonesia_giant_snake

Officials: World's Largest Snake Caught

Mon Dec 29, 6:28 AM ET

Add Strange News - AP to My Yahoo!

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian villagers claim to have captured a python that is almost 49.21 feet long and weighs nearly 992.07 pounds, a local official said Monday.

If confirmed, it would be the largest snake ever kept in captivity.

Hundreds of people have flocked to see the snake at a primitive zoo in Curugsewu village on the country's main island of Java, Republika daily reported. It splashed two large pictures of the reptile across its back page.

Local government official Rachmat said the reticulated python measured 14.85 meters (49 feet) and weighed in at 447 kilograms (985 pounds).

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the longest ever captured snake to be 9.75 meters (32 feet). The heaviest — a Burmese Python kept in Gurnee, Illinois — weighs 182.76 kilograms (403 pounds), the book said on its Web site.

Rebublika said the snake, which was caught last year but only recently put on public display, 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.

found any of the pics online?

It could be an exagerated claim but I'd really like to see some
pics.

Thanks,
tc

see the link below
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,101927,00.jpg

...some part of the story is certainly bogus. That is a FAT retic. If it were 49 feet long it would easily wiegh 2500 pounds...
-----
Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

I was heard about that story so I came here to read more about it because I dont own a retic I want one but they get to big but I think that snake in not being fed enough food

As much as I'd like this to be true, I find it virtually impossible to believe. It would be like finding a human 12 feet tall. Biological systems just don't scale well. I would think it would have to have a heart the size of a buick to pump blood to it's tail. Plus by my calculations a fairly thin retic that long would weight 2400 pounds...

I could MAYBE buy 39 feet and 990 pounds, but the fact that noone's bothered to snap a picture of what might be the longest snake that's ever lived makes me very susicious.
-----
Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

I also have tons of reasons to believe the claim is exagerated. It seems real that they found a huge retic, just not as much as 49 feet.
But now the question is, could she be bigger than the 1912 retic at some 33' ? did the century old record finally give in?

_____

Removed unacceptable website link.

Edited on December 30, 2003 at 11:25:08 by phwyvern.

Looking at the pic, i'd almost say that's a yellowhead retic (could be wrong). The strange thing is that they say she was caught in Sumatra, i thought Thailand would be more like it... What do you all think?

_____

Removed unacceptable website link.

Edited on December 30, 2003 at 11:24:34 by phwyvern.

I'm calling a big steamy pile of BS. There's no way it's that large. It just wouldn't make sense that no one has found anything near 30 feet let alone 50.

And to the person that said the retic would weigh 2500 pounds what are you basing this off of? Bob Clark's Fluffy is 310 pounds at 22 feet. So 27 more feet would add 2200 pounds? That doesn't add up.

If the length turns out to be accurate I would think the weight would be right around 900 pounds. But I don't buy any of this for a minute.

>>And to the person that said the retic would weigh 2500 pounds what are you basing this off of? Bob Clark's Fluffy is 310 pounds at 22 feet. So 27 more feet would add 2200 pounds? That doesn't add up.

That's because you're adding. Snakes are 3 dimensional, so you have to exponentiate (if that's a word). 49 feet is 2.23 times the length of fluffy. Assuming it's the same shape that would make it 310*(2.23^3) = 3438 pounds, but like I said, I was assuming a fairly skinny snake.
-----
Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

Not to split hairs, but the retic isn't going to be 2x as fat as it is long. They just aren't a fat snake. Not to mention the fact that snakes kept as pets eat much better than wild snakes I'm sure.

>>Not to split hairs, but the retic isn't going to be 2x as fat as it is long.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here? Simple geometry...if you take 3 dimentional object and scale it up to twice it's length, it also becomes twice as wide and twice as high...therefore 2^3 or 8 times the volume/weight of the original...

>>They just aren't a fat snake.

Agreed. Fluffy is quite fat for a retic. However I've seen pictures now from two sources of the alleged monster which look like pics of the same snake, so I don't think they are old file photos...and it is FAT!!!

>>Not to mention the fact that snakes kept as pets eat much better than wild snakes I'm sure.

True, but see above.
-----
Larry D. Fishel
Side effects may include paralysis
and death but are generally mild.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1-946294,00.html

-----
Marcel Poots (Holland)
'Where is your crown King Nothing?' James Hettfield

If there is any truth to this story it would be amazing.No snake has ever come close to a length like this.The weight seems off if the snake isanywhere close to that length.

I would be shocked if that snake is over 18-19ft and 125lbs. I wish it were true but it doesn't look like it is.

-----

I agree, as much as i would have loved for this to be true, and my heart skipped a beat when i saw it on Yahoo, the picture doesn't match the claim. It could be a 15-20 ft. retic easy, but 49 ft? Not that snake.

If the claims about taking it from the villagers are true...it could be a "wild caught" animal (if it lives in the village with people..is it really wild?). However the size claims are OBVIOUSLY false, unless all the people in the pictures are 10 feet tall. They did take pictures so you cant actually observe the lenght in comparison. You cant see the end with the observers, and in the pic next to the handler its from an opposing head angle so you cant see how long it is or if the tail is hanging down off the end. It could definately be a 20 foot animal but I call SHANANIGANS on the whole thing!
-----
"It's my snake, I trained it, so I'm going to eat it!" - Mad Max, The Road Warrior