Dear Carpet Python peoploe ... in order to stay within the bounds of what's legal, you have to go to the URL link below to see the pic of the Carpet Python that goes with this item... or go direct to http://www.abc.net.au/goldcoast/stories/m876056.jpg Cheers, Wes
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION 11 May 04 Not so slim, snakey: when a carpet snake gets greedy (Peter Young with Jane Cowan)
Photo: Greedy guts: the snake on arrival.
Summer was hot and the snakes were out.
They arouse different emotions in people but pictured here is one that most of us who have overeaten on Christmas day could identify with. This substantial animal was found up at Springbrook and brought in to David Fleay Wildlife Park because, not surprisingly, it was totally unable to move.
No movement, of course, means substantial risk of attack. What is staggering about this carpet snake is that it ever fitted in such a gargantuan feast. By now you will have assessed the size of the head and the size of the bulge. How did it do it?
Pythons catch their prey in their jaws then rapidly wrap their muscular body around the victim and squeeze. I had always thought that this squeezing broke bones and not only killed the prey but made it more manageable to eat. Not so, says Adam Northam, the park's reptile expert. It simply kills the prey by preventing it from breathing.
The prey dead, the snake then starts stuffing it in by working its jaws. These jaws are made up of four plates that work independently of each other so the process is something like this: top right pulls, top left pulls, bottom right pulls, bottom left pulls, top right pulls... All this independent pulling by the jaws slowly works the prey into the body where strong rhythmic contractions move it along - very effective. The jaws themselves are, of course, extremely elastic, as is the body of the snake. Otherwise the whole process we witness in the photo would be impossible.
when a carpet snake gets greedy
