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THE STAR (Pretoria, S Africa) 21 January 05 US snake-catcher to look for Gauteng's monster reptile (Melanie-Ann Feris)
Imagine a snake so huge, the whole of a man's leg can fit into its mouth.
The skin of the snake, believed to be about 5m long, was discovered a few weeks ago, and has precipitated a search for the reptile.
With every shedding of its skin, the snake grows bigger.
This is not just the makings of someone's imagination, nor is the reptile's hunting grounds a forest, or deepest, darkest Africa. It's habitat is right here, just an hour's drive away from Johannesburg.
The skin, believed to be of a python, had been found just north of Pretoria and has captured the interest of a US herpetologist (specialist in reptiles and amphibians), Dr Brady Barr.
Barr, a field specialist with the US wildlife magazine National Geographic, is in South Africa to document the bite force of various animals including lion, hyena and great whites.
But Barr's abiding passion is snakes and crocodiles.
His National Geographic film credits include Outback Venom, Snake Island and Man-eaters of Malawi.
Barr's encounters with both crocodiles and snakes are legendary. He tells of how in India he was caught by a snake that started coiling itself around his neck.
"We were walking around and I saw a bit of its body, but we didn't have a cameraman with us, so we went back a week later to look for it. We were walking in the swamp and saw this huge snake. We decided to count to three and then jump it."
"I went for the tail, he (a colleague) went for the head. When we put our hands on it and felt its strength, it was 'Oh Sh*t!'." on to it ... We were wrestling with it, we thought we would drown, but eventually we subdued it."
"The villagers had told us they had a problem with a snake that was eating their livestock, so we carried the snake to the village. Then they (the villagers) came out and said 'That's not even a big one'."
If Barr survives swimming with great white sharks at Gansbaai over the next five days, he intends to come straight back to Pretoria to look for the huge python.
"You can look for weeks for a snake ... you don't get to be that big without being clever," Barr said. - Environment Reporter.
US snake-catcher to look for Gauteng's monster reptile

Hiya bro! Enjoy reading your posts of snakes in the news, you ever get pics of that retic swallowing the dogs in Indonesian? If anyone has them, it would be you!

Draco