independent and unofficial
Prince fan community
Welcome! Sign up or enter username and password to remember me
Forum jump
Forums > General Discussion > Python Eats Pregnant Sheep
« Previous topic  Next topic »
  New topic   Printable     (Log in to 'subscribe' to this topic)
Author

Tweet     Share

Message
Thread started 10/09/06 1:05pm

GaryTheNoTrash
Cougar

avatar

Python Eats Pregnant Sheep



September 15, 2006—A fresh lamb dinner might sound like a manageable meal for an 18-foot-long (5.5-meter-long) python. But maybe the hungry snake should have waited for the lamb to be born.

Last week firefighters in the Malaysian village of Kampung Jabor were called in to remove the bloated snake (pictured) from a roadway. The reptile had swallowed an entire pregnant sheep and was too full to slither away and digest its supersize meal.

But the stress of being captured likely triggered the python to purge—it eventually regurgitated the dead ewe.

Pythons are constrictors, meaning they rely on strength, not venom, to kill their prey. About once a week the large snakes ambush a likely meal, grab hold with backward-curving teeth, and wrap around the victim, suffocating it to death. Pythons then open their hinged jaws wide to swallow their prey whole.

Sometimes, though, it seems like the voracious reptiles don't think before they snack. This particular snake isn't the first python to get a tough lesson in the dangers of swallowing oversize prey.

In July a pet Burmese python in Idaho required life-saving surgery to remove a queen-size electric blanket from its digestive tract (see photo). And last October a python in the Florida Everglades apparently busted a gut when it tried to make a meal of a 6-foot-long (2-meter-long) American alligator (see photo).

—Victoria Gilman


http://news.nationalgeogr...n-ewe.html
Klopf, klopf!

Wer ist dort?

Unterbrechende Kuh.

Unterbrech...

Muh!!!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #1 posted 10/09/06 1:07pm

GaryTheNoTrash
Cougar

avatar

Python Bursts After Eating Gator



Updated September 5, 2006—Unfortunately for a 13-foot (4-meter) Burmese python in Florida's Everglades National Park, eating the enemy seems to have caused the voracious reptile to bust a gut—literally.

Wildlife researchers with the South Florida Natural Resources Center found the dead, headless python in October 2005 after it apparently tried to digest a 6-foot-long (2-meter-long) American alligator. The mostly intact dead gator was found sticking out of a hole in the midsection of the python, and wads of gator skin were found in the snake's gastrointestinal tract.

The gruesome discovery suggests that the python's feisty last meal might have been simply too much for it to handle.

An alternative theory will be put forth in a September 16 Explorer episode on the National Geographic Channel.

(National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society, which is part owner of the National Geographic Channel.)

An animated recreation of the python-alligator battle suggests that the python might have survived its massive meal but that a second gator came to the rescue and bit off the snake's head. The force of the tussle, the new theory says, is what caused the python to burst.

But even scientists associated with the show aren't so sure the new theory holds water.

Wayne King, reptile curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, cites the relatively clean decapitation of the snake. "Alligators, they don't bite off a piece," he told McClatchey Newspapers. "They grab hold, then they roll and spin. If one grabs you by the arm, normally they wrench the arm off, or if they grab you by the buttocks, they'll rip away a chunk of meat."

Clashes between alligators and pythons have been on the rise in the Everglades for the past 20 years. Unwanted pet snakes dumped in the swamp have thrived, and the Asian reptile is now a major competitor in the alligator's native ecosystem. (See "Huge, Freed Pet Pythons Invade Florida Everglades.")

"Clearly if [pythons] can kill an alligator, they can kill other species," Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor, told the Associated Press. "There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons. … This [event] indicates to me it's going to be an even draw."

—Victoria Gilman


http://news.nationalgeogr...gator.html
Klopf, klopf!

Wer ist dort?

Unterbrechende Kuh.

Unterbrech...

Muh!!!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #2 posted 10/09/06 1:09pm

meltwithu

avatar

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused
you look better on your facebook page than you do in person hmph!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #3 posted 10/09/06 1:09pm

GaryTheNoTrash
Cougar

avatar

Snake Swallows Electric Blanket



July 24, 2006—The latest trick by Houdini the Burmese python almost proved to be his last.

Surgery was required to save the 12-foot (3.5-meter) snake when it made a meal of a queen-size electric blanket, complete with electrical cord and control box, as seen in this July 19 photo. The blanket's wiring extended through about 8 feet (2.5 meters) of the the 60-pound (27-kilogram) reptile's digestive tract (inset).

The blanket probably got tangled up with the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska of Ketchum, Idaho, told the Associated Press. Beznoska keeps the blanket in Houdini's cage to keep the animal warm, because pythons can't generate their own body heat.

Veterinarians Karsten Fostvedt and Barry Rathfon had never performed surgery on a snake before, but they called up some specialists for advice on where to operate. Afterward, Fostvedt told AP that Houdini's "prognosis is great."

The booming trade in exotic pets is creating huge problems for conservation biologists. Many owners are abandoning their Burmese pythons in Florida after they reach full size, for example, and scientists fear the invasive species will overrun the Everglades National Park (see "Huge, Freed Pet Pythons Invade Florida Everglades" [June 3, 2004]).

—Aalok Mehta


http://news.nationalgeogr...anket.html
Klopf, klopf!

Wer ist dort?

Unterbrechende Kuh.

Unterbrech...

Muh!!!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #4 posted 10/09/06 1:11pm

SupaFunkyOrgan
grinderSexy

avatar

meltwithu said:

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused


Maybe you should be looking for good boys wink
2010: Healing the Wounds of the Past.... http://prince.org/msg/8/325740
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #5 posted 10/09/06 1:11pm

GaryTheNoTrash
Cougar

avatar

meltwithu said:

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused


Want the link? Except it not a cucumber smile
Klopf, klopf!

Wer ist dort?

Unterbrechende Kuh.

Unterbrech...

Muh!!!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #6 posted 10/09/06 1:11pm

SupaFunkyOrgan
grinderSexy

avatar

GaryTheNoTrashCougar said:

meltwithu said:

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused


Want the link? Except it not a cucumber smile

falloff falloff falloff
2010: Healing the Wounds of the Past.... http://prince.org/msg/8/325740
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #7 posted 10/09/06 1:13pm

meltwithu

avatar

GaryTheNoTrashCougar said:

meltwithu said:

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused


Want the link? Except it not a cucumber smile


sure!! i like to see the technique before i get my johnson all scarred and scratched by an amateur lol
you look better on your facebook page than you do in person hmph!
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #8 posted 10/09/06 1:50pm

funkpill

wow eek
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #9 posted 10/09/06 3:51pm

LleeLlee

I guess we can conclude that snakes are stupid.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #10 posted 10/09/06 4:00pm

AnckSuNamun

avatar



Looks like he's wearing a sweater lol
rose looking for you in the woods tonight rose Switch FC SW-2874-2863-4789 (Rum&Coke)
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #11 posted 10/09/06 7:03pm

luv4u

Moderator

avatar

moderator

omg
canada

Ohh purple joy oh purple bliss oh purple rapture!
REAL MUSIC by REAL MUSICIANS - Prince
"I kind of wish there was a reason for Prince to make the site crash more" ~~ Ben
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #12 posted 10/10/06 5:36am

Rhondab

meltwithu said:

and on a related note..you know how hard it is to find a good girl who can put a whole cucumber in her mouth? confused



ok..this made me giggle...

ya'll are so twisted...lol.
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #13 posted 10/10/06 5:46am

Tom

avatar

  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
Reply #14 posted 10/10/06 5:51am

coolcat

So pythons will eat anything? Is this a solution to our garbage problem?
  - E-mail - orgNote - Report post to moderator
  New topic   Printable     (Log in to 'subscribe' to this topic)
« Previous topic  Next topic »
Forums > General Discussion > Python Eats Pregnant Sheep