The First Snake
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.
The Second Snake
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.
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Clip from National Geographic Photos in the News:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/photo_in_the_news.html
Added in 2006
