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Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Odd that the head is missing. I suspect something bigger took the head off and opened it up. Either a curious human or a bigger gator.

Wouldnt a python know what it can safely eat or not? I found the story very interesting but suprised a python would try to eat something that it couldnt.

The problem with this whole story is bad writing from the reporter. Snakes do not "explode" when they've eaten too much. They'll usually throw it up or digest it. When dealing with this kind of story you have to remember that most people know nothing about snakes, and will believe anything someone tells them. What was probably a normal feeding (although Burmese rarely eat reptiles, they do on occasion) probably resulted in a slow moving snake that got nailed by a bigger gator. Someone misinterpreted what they saw. Same thing happened around the turn of the 1900s when people would find large pythons about to eat mucous covered prey, and assumed snakes covered their prey with saliva in order to swallow it, when actually the animal had thrown it up for some reason immediately after eating it. The public is extremely gullible.

I'm not sure thats true. From what the article said, the snake swallowed the alligator while it was still alive, causing it to kick it's way out. I have seen my JCP swallow a mouse live, kicking and fighting all the way down, to my horror, and went off feed for about a month. I feed fresh stunned and she's always killed them first but this time went straight for the swallow without ever constricting. Anyway, it's possible. Dealing with something that big and strong, and a snake that was at one point a pet may be used to eating frozen thawed and or fresh killed. As most of us with snakes know, they get lazy when they don't have to hunt. It may not be true but it certainly is possible.

Yes that makes sense ESP since some big gators there. Tho pythons dont belong there its kinda neat unusual animals there.
I wonder if they would reproduce there tho I imagine the occasional cold spell might prevent that.

I live in Englewood, FL. About 80 Miles away from Everglades. I was watching jay leno a couple months ago and some reptile specialist was saying that there is now Nile Monitor species in the everglades as well as big pythons, and they're rapidly growing in number.

>>The problem with this whole story is bad writing from the reporter. Snakes do not "explode" when they've eaten too much. They'll usually throw it up or digest it. When dealing with this kind of story you have to remember that most people know nothing about snakes, and will believe anything someone tells them. What was probably a normal feeding (although Burmese rarely eat reptiles, they do on occasion) probably resulted in a slow moving snake that got nailed by a bigger gator. Someone misinterpreted what they saw. Same thing happened around the turn of the 1900s when people would find large pythons about to eat mucous covered prey, and assumed snakes covered their prey with saliva in order to swallow it, when actually the animal had thrown it up for some reason immediately after eating it. The public is extremely gullible.

I think the gator that got eaten kicked it's way out. If another gator had attacked the python full of prey then why is the whole carcass (for the most part) still there?
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

The source that I read this story on provided another interesting and theoretically possible explaination for the python's demise. It said that the alligator might have already been decomposing and the methane gas released by the process may have ruptures the snake's stomach. It sounds unlikely, but if the snake was not able to stay consistantley warm enough to digest the gator, then I imagine it could happen even though I'd rather not. That's quite a way to die for the poor Burmese.

If it kicked it's way out (hard to go w/limbs folded), then what explains the missing head of the snake? I've never heard of snakes exploding when eating any other prey item. I don't buy the whole gas theory. And Burmese have established a colony, breeding, in Florida.