Alligator explodes Burmese

[Hedorah99]

This is just bizarre, but kinda sad for the everglades region.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051005/ap_on_fe_st/gator_python

 

[AfterTheAsylum]

Okay, here is where more people that hated my Gramm and Brachy comment are going to get furious with me again...

Good, I don't like snakes I think they are ugh, blah, gru and odk. IN MY OPINION, I think they are just... And on top of that they are )*(&. But again, that is just my opinion. Smart snake... let's try to swallow a gator. My question is if the gator died, it doesn't say. They speculate that the gator clawed it's way out. So what is going on. Satan was the only good thing that snakes had going for them. Hooray for John Milton!

The Sickness

 

[Brandon]

Uncalled for man there is no need to express public distast for a family of animals on a site dedicated to animals. Im no man of god but if you want to bring in satan, wouldnt snakes be one of gods animals if he created all things? Once again uncalled for.

Sincerely,

Brandon

 

[AfterTheAsylum]

I think you took it too seriously. You would need to see some of my posts to understand the joke behind it all. Also, you would need to read Paradise Lost by John Milton to understand the Satan comment. It's all a joke, no need to fret.

 

[xgrafcorex]

yep

they both died it says. thats pretty crazy that it could ALMOST eat a whole gator... i doubt it clawed its way out..the snake probably strangled the last breath out of it before trying to eat it. well i guess that mazzotti knows a lot more than me..but my intial though was that itd be damn hard for that snake to get its mouth around a live gator and then swallow the rest of it.

think the snake couldnt digest the outer layer of the gator??

 

[AfterTheAsylum]

Am I missing something? I read it again and I don't see anywhere that it says the gator died. It does say that the python tried swallowing it live and that the gator may have clawed its way out.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I think you are missing something. The article states (bolding mine) "The snake was found with the gator's hindquarters protruding from its midsection. Mazzotti said the alligator may have clawed at the python's stomach as the snake tried to digest it."

Further, the picture is captioned thusly:

" In this photo provided by the Everglades National Park, the carcass of a six-foot American alligator is shown protruding from the mid-section of a 13-foot Burmese python Monday, Sept. 26, 2005 in Everglades National Park, Fla., after the snake apparently swallowed the alligator resulting in the deaths of both animals."

Sounds like a gone 'gator to me!

 

[Captante]

The real problem here is misguided snake owners who either allow their large snakes to escape or more often set them loose in South Florida where they have no natural enemies ... in the long run stuff like this will hurt people who keep snakes as pets first & can provide ammunition to pass more laws banning exotic pets, an example is non-native Arachnids which are already tightly regulated in Florida.

 

[AfterTheAsylum]

Thank you for pointing that out - you now ruined my day... I wish someone would have lied to me. It was horrific for me to hear of the gator they murdered in New Orleans. I need to hide my comp screen, my gator cage is right behind me - he might flip out if he reads this. And yes, I put him through school he can read text and speak in 12 languages.

 

[Galapoheros]

Looks like there's allot of points to make about what happened. It was on the news here. Gator was obviously dead. Not settling with me. Seems like something is wrong to me. The way they say the snake died. It was torn apart in the video I saw. As far as I know, nobody saw what happened. But, I didn't read the article either. My senses are telling me that something else killed the snake. Maybe it got hit by a boat, or got attacked by another alligator after it was alive and well and after a good gator gourmet. I'm having a hard time believing that the snake died and exploded because it ate something too big. Even if the snake died and gases built up, the tissue would probably rip somewhere at a weak spot and leak out. That's just what I think. "explode"..I don't think so. I'm fine with being wrong about that but it would take allot to convince me otherwise. Looked like the snake had been there a while. Allot of things could have eaten on it, especially turtles.

Just read the article. I didn't see "explode" but they did say it exploded on the news here. Something else killed the snake after it ate the alligator. That's just my hunch.

 

[Mandi]

I agree.. the alligator didnt claw his way out.. or fight his way out, because he wouldn't have been that far down into the snakes digestive system. Something else killed the snake, or maybe the sharp points on the alligators skin ripped him open during digestion & this is the result days later.

 

[Ultimate Instar]

Since anacondas eat South American crocodiles, it seems unlikely that a large constrictor would suffer internal damage from an alligator's ridges.

Karen N.

 

[syndicate]

crazy stuff

 

[David Richards]

Swallowed alive?

Remember who they are quoting when they say it was eaten alive. It is unlikely that a 6 foot anything would be swallowed alive let alone a mouthfull of teeth like that. I am not sure what happened but I am pretty sure the snake killed it first and something went wrong after he swallowed. How could the python fit those snapping jaws into it's little mouth???? Just my view having seen many a snake eat. Although I have seen some greedy snakes eat pinky mice live, kind of apples and oranges there. dave

 

[whoami?]

What surprises me is that the snake tried to swallow the gator before killing it.

I once caught a 1.5 foot rat snake and fed it a pinky mouse, and was horrified when the snake swallowed it alive. I could seriously hear the mouse screaming midway down the esophagus. That's disturbing.

But I figured that the snake didn't bother killing the mouse because the mouse was tiny in comparison. The python/gator situation looks to be a little bit different. If that snake really tried to swallow a gator without killing it first, that's messed up. That snake must have been extremely hungry or extremely stupid. Maybe it had just been released while previously only been fed pre-killed food, and forgot that some food fights back. Or maybe that's actually pretty common. I don't know.

 

[Wade]

I don't think anybody knows for sure that the alligator was still alive, it's just speculation. I think it's unlikely that the alligator was alive when when swallowed, although it could have been in some sort of torpid state and then came out of it later. Very unlikely, though.

Wade

 

[Nlneff]

Speculation

I cant help but wonder if the snake was killed by someone, cut open to reveal the gator, and then the story of the gator exploding the snake came about, since it makes a better story.

 

[Anthony]

For certain, those are amazing pictures.

 

[PrettyHate]

What surprises me is that the snake tried to swallow the gator before killing it.

I once caught a 1.5 foot rat snake and fed it a pinky mouse, and was horrified when the snake swallowed it alive. I could seriously hear the mouse screaming midway down the esophagus. That's disturbing.

But I figured that the snake didn't bother killing the mouse because the mouse was tiny in comparison. The python/gator situation looks to be a little bit different. If that snake really tried to swallow a gator without killing it first, that's messed up. That snake must have been extremely hungry or extremely stupid. Maybe it had just been released while previously only been fed pre-killed food, and forgot that some food fights back. Or maybe that's actually pretty common. I don't know.

As far as I know Burmese Pythons (the type of snake in the article I believe) are constrictors meaning they squeeze their prey to death. If this is the case, one would assume that the gator was dead when the python actually started to ingest it.

Its quite possible that if the snake died after gator was eaten that the build up of gases in its gut (due to decomposition) is what caused it to "explode". Not to mention that it seems to me that the picture showed the snake in the water- which would have caused it to swell up/bloat even more after it died. Pleasent.

Im so glad I didnt come across anything like that this summer while in Florida.

EDITED TO ADD- I have a ribbon snake who eats her food (gold fish) live. Often she gets flopped all over the place while her food struggles. Any snakes that eat prey such as mice, rats etc. should never be given live food as it can actually cause harm to the snake. Obviously anything that is being attacked will instinctivly struggle and try to bite and or scratch whatever is trying to make a dinner of it. I know that if goldfish suddendly grew teeth and claws I would stop feeding my snake live food in an instant! Pretty much any kind of snake can be taught to eat prekilled food- sometimes it just takes a while, and a few "tricks".

Of couse in the wild snakes will usually only go after food that is alive and kicking. The difference here is that the food is not in a comfined area with the snake. If the prey gets away, it heads for the hills- not for the corner of the tank where it is confronted by the snake again and again. Most mice/rats will not be afraid to lash out and inflict a good bite/scratch if their life is in danger.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I once kept a garter snake that I often fed goldfish. Well, a friend had an aquarium and he had some kind of catfish with stripes, long whiskers, and a hi-rise dorsal fin. It was eating his other fish, and since I also had a tank, he gave it to me. I was pleased to get such an attractive fish, but shortly after introducing it, noticed it was killing my fish also. I hated to do it, but the catfish had to go and I knew nobody to pass it on to. So, I figured it was better to feed it to my garter snake rather than kill it, or worse, flush it.

The garter eagerly consumed it, even thouogh it was a rather large meal in comparison to a gold fish. Of course, the snake took the fish head-first allowing the high dorsal fin to lay down. But much to my surprise, when I looked in later, somehow that fish had managed to erect that fin, puncturing thru the snake and emerging from it's exterior!

I figgered that snake was certainly a goner, but, the wound closed around the piece of prtruding spine, and eventually the wound healed around the spine, which then dropped off. I never would have believed it had I not saw it with my own eyes.

This probably doesn't have much bearing on the subject, but the thread reminded me of it, and I thought it made for an interesting anecdote!