Texas Star
US Veteran
Years ago my sister & I went to the San Antonio Zoo. One of the exhibits was the largest snake I've ever seen;maybe a Rock Python? I know it wasn't an Anaconda. The snake was easily thicker than my upper thigh & had a head the size of a football. Just a huge snake. I have no problem with snakes mostly because I'm never around them these days. When I was growing up in the Canal Zone there were quite an assortment of dangerous snakes that you definitely had to be aware of.
This sounds more like a Reticulated Python, Python reticulatus. I think I remembered the scientific name and spelled it right.
They're often bad tempered and can definitely constrict a human. One was found in Burma in WW II with the remains of a Japanese soldier in it. But the African Rock Python you mentioned is also large and is often vicious, too.
The teeth of pythons and boas and anacondas curve backward, the better to hold prey. They can be hard to extract once the snake has bitten someone. I once saw a pet shop owner who had been bitten by either a Green Tree Python or an Emerald Tree Boa; I forget which. They look a LOT alke, despite coming from half the world away. That's called Parallel Development by scientists. Similar environments produced similar snakes.
This guy's hand was a mess. He'd smeared it liberally with antibiotic ointment and infection hadn't set in but it was still swollen a little and red. The tooth marks were clear.
Can you imagine what it'd be like to save yourself or a friend from a big constrictor? I wrote a scene for the The Lost World fan fiction where a big boa constrictor had gotten hold of Prof. Challenger and his friends were stumped about what to do. Then, Ned Malone grabbed the head and pried it loose while Veronica (if you recall those characters from the show) knifed it in the brain from below. They still had to unwind it from Veronica. Finally, they tossed it aside and Finn shot it, although the brain-knifing had probably killed it. She twisted the knife in there as the snake struggled and entwined her. Some snakes continue to wriggle when dead. And a severed head can still bite for some time. It was a pretty intense scene to write and I made it as real as I could. They did all that I could think of, but I hope that I never have to deal with a big constrictor.
Have any of you seen the pics floating around the Net of the Rock Python that bit an electric fence and was fried? I'm guessing that the fence burned it and it struck the fence, only to be electrocuted even more effectively. The open mouth was on the fence.
I presume that everyone here knows that Burmese pythons are reproducing in parts of Florida and are considered a nuisance. But the state is being very PC about killing them, from what I read. If one kills a child or some important person's favorite pet, maybe that will change. And Nile Monitor Lizards are also now becoming common. Both the monitor lizard and the big snakes bred from released pets.
