After swallowing a large animal, pythons remain silent for a long time.
A five-year-old boy has been dramatically rescued from a python in Australia. Three times the size of the child, the snake first bit him and then twisted and dragged him into the swimming pool.
Ben Blake, the father of this child named Beau Blake, gave a thrilling account of the incident from a local radio station in Australia. She said her child was playing in the swimming pool when the ten-foot long python attacked her.
When the snake threw Beau into the swimming pool, the child's grandfather, 76-year-old Alan, jumped into the water. Beau pulled the snake up. The snake was still twisting Beau.
Finally Beau's father separated him from the snake by pulling him with both hands.
This incident happened in New South Wales, last week.
Ben Blake said his son was walking along the edge of the swimming pool. The python snake was sitting there. Waiting to attack him.
Fortunately Beau survived the incident. Later the python was released back where it came from.
Do snakes have intelligence?
The way this python attacks its prey may seem like a very intelligent animal. Is it really so?
Farid Ahsan, a teacher in the Zoology Department of Chittagong University, has been researching snakes for many years. He says python has enough intelligence to move, to live.
“Records on pythons show that there are many pet snakes that wait to eat their owners. They stop eating for weeks. After that at some point they tried to eat him,” he said.
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Scientists say there are 10 to 13 species of pythons around the world.
Farid Ahsan cites a case in the US - a country where many keep pythons as pets at home.
One such person took his pet python to the vet and said that his snake had not been eating for weeks. Does he have any illness or other problem?
The doctor then told him that “the snake is preparing itself to eat something big. And you too can be his food.”
What does python eat?
When the python is young, it hunts and eats small animals. At first it started with mice, frogs, birds, but after growing up, this animal began to swallow cows, buffaloes, crocodiles, deer and even humans whole.
Scientists say that mammals are their favorite among these foods.
Farid Ahsan said, “Snakes are cold-blooded animals. So they prefer to eat warm-blooded animals as food.”
Many keep pythons at home.
A woman was recently swallowed whole by a python in Indonesia. Villagers started searching for 54-year-old Wa Thiba in Muna Island when she did not return from the vegetable field near her home in the morning.
The next day they found the woman's sandals and the knife lying in the forest near the field. A few meters away lies a big, fat-bellied striped python.
Then the villagers suspected that the snake might have eaten the woman. They kill the snake. Later, the body of the woman was found inside the stomach.
How do people swallow whole?
How does the python swallow the prey that is several times larger than its size?
Scientist Farid Ahsan says, first the snake twists its prey and kills it by pressure and then starts eating from the head.
“We can yaw our jaws a certain amount. But snakes can extend their jaws up to 180 degrees, due to which they can swallow larger animals."
After swallowing a large animal, pythons remain silent for a long time. Does not move.
Pythons can extend their jaws up to 180 degrees
Mr. Ahsan said that although there is no incident of swallowing humans in Bangladesh, there have been incidents of pythons remaining stubborn for a few days after eating deer.
“The deer was swallowed whole, then fell down. He could not move for five or seven days. Once he eats such a large meal, he does not need food for many days."
Scientists say that the bones and horns of such large animals are digested inside the python's stomach.
Generally, all types of snakes avoid people and human settlements. But the nature of the attack on the child in Australia may suggest that the snake was targeting its victim and waiting.
"It is not correct to say that the target is sitting. But if they don't get food around, they will eat people when they get close.”
There are records of pythons eating humans in Brazil and even in India's Hooghly.
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