»Python explodes after eaten alligator cuts its way out«

Gator that Clawed Its Way Out of a Python's Gut

Cool picture from the Florida Everglades...

A 13-foot Burmese python was found with an alligator hanging out of a hole in the python's stomach.
Very likely what happened was the snake grabbed the gator, wrapped it up in snake coils, and constricted until the gator stopped moving. Then the python swallowed the gator, but since gators can hold their breath a long time (so they can stay underwater) the gator revived and clawed its back end out of the snake's stomach before both animals finally died.

The Everglades is down around Miami - really parts of Miami are just drained sections of the Everglades - and there are all kinds of exotic reptiles down there. This python was probably somebody's pet that got released in the 'glades.

One time I was at my father's uncle's house in Miami and I caught a foot long anole on his tree. He was like, "That there came over with the Cubans!" White laugh

(He had lived in Miami before there were many Cubans there). So I looked it up in my field guide, and sure enough, it was a Cuban Knight Anole - see pic.

[CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS PICTURE]
[CLICK HERE TO VIEW THIS PICTURE]

posted by holy_of_holies

in-my-opinion.org -> Technology, Computers, Science, Internet -> Astonishing pictures: Nature / Cosmos / Animals -> Python explodes after eaten alligator cuts its way out

you beat me to it holy i was just about to post this up! that is absolutely insane, pythons are incredible... Shocked

posted by gkiss

gkiss:

you beat me to it holy i was just about to post this up! that is absolutely insane, pythons are incredible... Shocked

Yeah I saw it earlier today on cnn.com but they didn't have a full-size pic, and I couldn't find it on the AP site. This one came from Yahoo. Where did you see it?

posted by holy_of_holies

yeah i saw it just now on yahoo.com...it said it burst from eating it but then it said it might have clawed its way out while the snake was trying to digest it...so maybe its a little of both...are pythons endangered?

posted by gkiss

i just don't understand how a snake...python or not...can eat AN ALLIGATOR...like, the gator must have fought back somehow, and personally my money would have been on the gator? right? i mean anatomically, the odds are pretty much favoured for the gator but, how is it physically possible for a snake to overpower and eat a gator? so pythons are constrictors? how did he get that close to begin with? i would have loved to see that...except the bursting part...

posted by gkiss

the gator must have gone into that death twirl or whatever they call it right? im just so perplexed

posted by gkiss

gkiss:

yeah i saw it just now on yahoo.com...it said it burst from eating it

I rejected that explanation immediately when I saw it because pythons' guts are much more expansive than their mouths due to bone structure. So if it was able to swallow the gator, and the gator was dead, it wouldn't have just ripped through the body wall from being too big - I think it really burst out like in »Alien«. What? When? Where? Why?

gkiss:

are pythons endangered?

Yes, pretty much any reptile that big is going to be endangered due to habitat destruction; big reptiles need big territories. But there are plenty being bred in captivity for pets, so the species is stable I imagine.

posted by holy_of_holies

gkiss:

The odds would be in favor of the gator if they met head to head, but that's not how snakes operate. They are stealth predators, which means they smell out their prey (or sense its heat if the prey is warm-blooded) and sneak up on it. Then the snake strikes and grabs on with its mouth, and wraps the prey up in coils so that even if the prey wriggles a lot, it can't get loose. The way constriction works is the snake doesn't squeeze or crush the prey to death, it just waits for the prey to exhale and then takes up the slack, so it slowly gets tighter around the torso until the prey can't expand its torso to inhale anymore and suffocates. Aaah, is there anything better than to post here and to drink something

The process of wrapping the prey up happens extremely fast, like a few seconds. Once you've seen a snake eat a mouse (I used to catch and keep rat snakes as a kid so I remember) you understand how it works. It's (1) strike! (2) wrap! (3) constrict and (4) swallow. 1 and 2 happen very fast, but 3 and 4 take a long time.

posted by holy_of_holies

are they venemous too? because, i guess the snake can be either one or the other, have venom or constrict its prey...that is so interesting.

holy_of_holies:

But there are plenty being bred in captivity for pets, so the species is stable I imagine.

yeah but...its not the same...

so their skin is extremely stretchy. ive heard of snakes eating deer and other big animals and never understood it. but i guess they have an acidic substance? in their mouths, or digestive substances but these would have to be higher up in their bodies so that they can break it down before it passes into their stomache right? they would turn it into "mush" (not the sci. term). that's so COOL! ah! i love snakes...

posted by gkiss

gkiss:

are they venemous too? because, i guess the snake can be either one or the other, have venom or constrict its prey...that is so interesting.

Nope, they're nonvenomous. I've never heard of a venomous snake constricting. I think it would be dangerous for the snake, because the fangs of venomous snakes could break off if they tried to hang on to writhing prey with them. Venomous snakes usually bite and envenomate their prey (shoot it full of venom) and then let it go off and die. Then the snake tracks the dead prey down and swallows it.

gkiss:

so their skin is extremely stretchy. ive heard of snakes eating deer and other big animals and never understood it. but i guess they have an acidic substance? in their mouths, or digestive substances but these would have to be higher up in their bodies so that they can break it down before it passes into their stomache right? they would turn it into "mush" (not the sci. term). that's so COOL! ah! i love snakes...

No it goes immediately into the stomach without being chewed up or broken down at all. There it is digested (which can take weeks or more), and in many cases the snake won't have to eat again for a long time.

posted by holy_of_holies

Horrifyingly, absolutely gross. It took me awhile too to distinguish between two animals since you couldn't tell which end came from where and such.

yuck

I will stop looking at it...

now.

posted by sangu

sangu:

Horrifyingly, absolutely gross. It took me awhile too to distinguish between two animals since you couldn't tell which end came from where and such.

Yeah, me too.

Let's just say that I wouldn't want to be the poor snake, who caught a nice fat gator for its dinner and ended up dying from much more than what we call food poisoning...

posted by nocturnal_anonymous

"NO CAPES!"

nocturnal_anonymous:

Let's just say that I wouldn't want to be the poor snake, who caught a nice fat gator for its dinner and ended up dying from much more than what we call food poisoning...

Reminds me of that bum I saw once in front of McDonalds who was shouting his propaganda:

If you eat at McDonald's you eat yourself

posted by knn

ebooks-download.com

holy_of_holies:

Yeah I saw it earlier today on cnn.com

They said on CNN:

"It's clearly a case where the eyes were bigger than the stomach" White laugh

posted by knn

knn:

"It's clearly a case where the eyes were bigger than the stomach"

What a twisted meaning...

posted by nocturnal_anonymous

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