Worlds larges snake ever caught!

[schloaty]

50 ' snake (http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INDONESIA_GIANT_SNAKE?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)

This is a reputable new site....They mention the claims have not been verified yet, but HOLY MOLY! *49.2 feet? 985 lbs? *

Hide the kids!

http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Ozzy]

That's one big snake!!! I want to see pics before I belive it though.

[PlantAKiss]

Awwwww...there is no pic. http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

A snake THAT big I'd like to SEE. Interesting story Schloaty. I'm just glad its not in my basement. http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[imported_cephalotus88]

I just looked over this story, and it seems kinda far fetch'd for me. It is true that retics get quite long, but it doesn't seem possible that one can reach around the 50's. How would an ecosystem support such a large predator? It is true there are some gi-normous (lol) pythons out there, but even seeing a 30footer nowadays is quite remarkable.

[goldtrap2690]

hhhhm , i thought they already captured a snake that big or bigger .

[schloaty]

Goldtrap,
The idea that snakes are maneaters is nonsense. No known snake (well, before this one) can get its mouth around an adult human. We have shoulders that just stick out at the wrong angle.
Anacondas have been documented to eat SMALL CHILDREN, but not adults.

[cchang]

Quote[/b] ]Anacondas have been documented to eat SMALL CHILDREN, but not adults.

Someone once emailed me a picture of this... it was quite nasty.

[PlantAKiss]

I've have that photo and it is definitely a man inside the snake and its DEFINITELY gross and very very sad. http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

The story I heard was that 3 men were camping in some jungle (can't remember where)...when they got up one morning, one man was missing. They couldn't find him anywhere. Later they found the snake with a significant LUMP and they killed it and opened it and found the missing man. That may be an "urban myth" but the photo is real. Ugh.

[CP2k]

Here is the pic:Park Puts World's Longest Snake on Show (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20031230/od_nm/snake_dc)

I always read the "Oddly Enough" section of Yahoo! news.

[Wesley]

My mom reads that sometimes.

[Wesley]

It's fact, I read it in the paper this morning.

[ALLOSAURZ]

World's largest Snake (http://animal.discovery.com/news/afp/20031229/python.html) according to this article the snake was originally longer. It was estimated to be 62 ft long before they had to amputate part of the tail

[Lauderdale]

Quote[/b] ] The idea that snakes are maneaters is nonsense. *No known snake (well, before this one) can get its mouth around an adult human. *We have shoulders that just stick out at the wrong angle. *
* Anacondas have been documented to eat SMALL CHILDREN, but not adults. Schloaty


I saw this story on FOX news this morning. *It showed a one minute film clip of this thing slithering around.
Schloaty, *I defer to your knowledge of reptiles. *However, I would not suggest testing your theory about them not being able to eat an adult human...982 pounds...you had better have VERY broad shoulders. http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

There is an area in Brazil that the nick name for large pythons is "Bull killer". *Red deer are their natural prey and they are only slightly smaller than our whitetails.

Hand feeding this 50 footer could spoil your whole day. http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[lavenderdawn]

Here's another article on the same snake.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3845750/
I don't know how to make an active link, unless this does it by itself, you'll have to cut&paste.
Not into snakes myself, I got this from a friend who knows I'm not terribly fond of them. *cute *:-[
That article by allosaurz says that the snakes will break antlers on deer in order to swallow them head first. * http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[schloaty]

ALLOSAURZ,
I'm disinclined to beleive the amputation part....62' down to 49'? That's 13' (21%) of the overall length of the snake...I'm not sure at a) it could live through that or b) the stump would be as thin as pictured that far "up" the snake.

[fatboy]

About 6 months ago an Australian herpetologist came here (Indonesia) to write a book about Idonesian herps and he asked me to go romping around in the jungle with him looking for herps, which I was very happy to do. The only reason I don't keep any myself is my wife doesn't like them.

Anyway, back to the herp dude... we went to the Bali Reptile park where they had (it has since died) a 40+ foot python and this guy told me that there is basically no limit, as far as he can tell, as to how big a Reticulated Python will grow. He said there must, of course, be one but he doesn't think he or anyopne else has ever seen a max sized one. He said that food is the sole limiting factor with regard to the size of these pythons. He explained that if you got yourself a young one and continuously provided it with enough, good quality food (like pigs and deer when it got bigger - a dozen chickens for example won't do the trick) then it would just keep growing.

There's food for thought.

[PlantAKiss]

I saw a film clip of the snake today. They have it on display. It has a 3-foot girth. It was laying in a serpentine form so you couldn't fully appreciate its length, but it IS a BIIIIIG snake. It seems like a snake of that size and weight would have trouble getting around. How can it haul almost 1,000 lbs around and move fast enough to snare prey? But obviously it does or it wouldn't be that big!

UGH.

[fatboy]

Maybe the pigs or whatever look at it and think to themselves "I've got no chance of getting away from that" and just give themselves up.

[swords]

I saw this Python on TV yesterday morning, that's amazing! The news reporter said however "The zoo got it from a tribe who was worshipping it." I would imagine however, if the tribe was revering the snake as a holy creature then they would not willingly give it up....
Any truth to that Troy? I know how news gets twisted as it makes it's way around the world.

[fatboy]

Sounds like a crock to me Josh!
There is a story about it here Python story (http://www.suaramerdeka.com/harian/0312/29/kot22.htm), it's in Indonesian but basically it says:
* The snake was originally caught in the jungle in the Jambi province of Sumatra
* It's a male snake
* It weighs 447kg, length 14.85m
* It is now in a zoo in Curug, Java
The rest is just waffle about how it is hoped it will become a tourist attraction.

Sumatra is mostly either Muslim (Jambi and South Sumatra certainly are) or Christian and neither religion would be caught dead worshipping snakes! This sounds like media hype.

Cheers, Troy.

[Wesley]

Plant a kiss, Snake are basically 2 things, muscle and bones. What makes the snake moves is that it expands and contracts its muscles a certain way to move. It can move just as fast a small snake can because, it doesn't reall gain fat but muscle. So instead of being fat and grumpy like some humans are, it is a constant "weight lifter" always trying to ad muscle. A snake of that size would have no problem taking an animal out. Also snake are sorta like lions; they sneek up on the prey until it is in striking distance, then it attaks so quickly that the prey doesn't catch on to what's going on until it is to late. Even if did escape, the snake could probably out run it anyway and kill it. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[swords]

Hi Troy,

Thanks for the cultural info! The only snake "cult" I know of off hand is/was the Naga headhunters of India so I thought this was BS.

It's a bit depressing to think that even these days invented prejudicies towards the people from far off places would make it all the way to the morning news.

[wezx]

an anaconda has eaten a man in malaysia before

[swords]

If I recall correctly, Anacondas occur naturally only along the Amazon River in S. America.

[fatboy]

Beat me to it Josh, I was going to ask what it was doing in Malaysia?
You do recall correctly, Anaconda are a South American snake, don't get them in Asia except in zoo's.

[schloaty]

Wes,
Ever seens a really big snake? They're no where near as quick as small ones. They become ambush hunters. They may be strong, but not fast.

[Lauderdale]

I would like to make a correction to my post. *The Brazlian snake that has been nick named "bull killer" is an Anaconda not a Python. *After seeing the photo I had Python on the brain. I have seen many Boas in Central and South America but only one Anaconda in the wild.
Here is a very interesting web site about big snakes.

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/gi....te=http (http://gosouthamerica.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.unmuseum.org/bigsnake.htm)

And a quote from it; "The largest-known snake in the world is the Anaconda, or Eunectes murinus, of South America. It holds the world's record for size with one specimen, encountered by petroleum geologist in eastern Columbia in the 1944, measuring 37 1/2 feet in length. Somewhere deep in the southern swamps do they grow bigger? According to Colonel Percy H. Fawcett, a former British Army officer, surveyor and adventurer in the early 1900's, they do: The Anaconda is also foot per foot a much bigger snake than the Python, being both heavier and wider in girth. This is probably because the anaconda, a water snake, does not have to be concerned about getting its body up a tree like the python does. For these reasons the museum reports the anaconda as the largest snake, though on the average some Pythons grow longer." http://www.**********.com/iB_html312/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[fatboy]

I guess it depends on who you listen to....

From the Guinness Book of Records:

Longest Snake
The reticulated python (Python reticulates) of southeast Asia, Indonesia, and the Philippines regularly exceeds 6.25 m (20 ft 6 in). The record length is 10 m (32 ft 9.5 in), for a specimen shot in Celebes, Indonesia, in 1912.

Heaviest Living Snake
The heaviest living snake is a Burmese Python weighing 182.76 kg (403 lb.) It is 21 years old, 8.23-m (27 ft) long, and has a girth of 71.12 cm (28 in) Known as "Baby", she lives at the Serpent Safari Park in Gurnee, Illinois, USA.

Cheers, Troy.

[imported_cephalotus88]

Anacondas and retics go head to head very often in record breaking stories. In most cases, anacondas are considered "larger" due to girth and weight. Retics tend to be longer; both snakes are nippy and somewhat aggressive, even babies lol (I got tagged by one in EastBay Vivarium lol).

[imported_cephalotus88]

I guess most of you heard the news about the retic right? On cryptozoology.com, they have a message/link about the snake being measured to about 21feet long.

[The Griffin]

The big retic measured to only 21 ft, or am I misreading something.
BTW, the picture of the man cut out of a snake was supposedly a hoax(I think I remember seeing it on snopes).
So a pig farmer has the best chance to raise a retic to largest size under containment, eh? I can't imagine who else could afford to feed it.

Joe

[Slizarus]

I'd have to see it put up to some sort of measurement..or at least noted by a respectable Zoologist before believing it....but that is still an impressive snake regardlesss of it's true size