Sometimes, what
we choose to eat doesn’t always agree with us, and a 13-foot African
Rock Python learned that decision the hard way after making a large
porcupine its dinner.
After
swallowing the 30-pound porcupine whole, the porcupine’s quills
punctured the python’s innards dozens of times, causing the giant snake
great suffering, then death. The python literally ate itself to death,
The bloated
python was first discovered by a man riding a mountain bike. The large
snake laid next to a cycle track at South Africa’s Lake Eland Game
Reserve near Port Shepstone. Later in the day, the python was found
under a rock ledge by reserve managers. Reserve managers believe the
python fell off the rock ledge while trying to digest the porcupine.
Photos of the
python were posted to the reserve’s Facebook page. As a response to the
photo, the reserve posted: “The African Rock Python who is close to our
cycle track must have swallowed a small warthog or an impala calf!
Should they score a large enough meal these protected reptiles only have
to eat again after many months.”
“They sent
pictures to our Facebook page and the snake ended up becoming quite a
celebrity. On Tuesday last week, we went out on the cycle track on foot
and managed to find the snake again. It looked to be quite a lot smaller
than the pictures. At first we thought it could have been a young
impala and a warthog that it had eaten,” said reserve manager Shona
Lawson.
Reserve general
manager Jennifer Fuller said: “The exact reasons for the snake’s death
are not clear. It is apparent that several porcupine quills were lodged
inside the digestive tract. It had fallen off the rocky ledge. We don’t
know if it died beforehand, or whether the fall drove some of the quills
into its digestive tract
The cause of the python’s death was verified by an autopsy.
Most predators
would have been scared off by the porcupine’s visual display of quills,
but snakes rely on either their thermal or chemical senses, not vision,
when they attack their prey. So, the python was unaware of the dangers
of the porcupine’s quills until it was too late, reports the Mirror.
After cutting
the python open, removing the porcupine, and performing an autopsy, the
Lake Eland Game Reserve posted the following to its Facebook page:
“Sadly, the African Rock Python that became an overnight sensation has
been found dead. The 3.9m long Python was found to have ingested a
13.8kg Porcupine. Autopsy showed Porcupine quills lodged in the snake’s
digestive tract.”
