A Burmese python swallowed a deer whole, a viral video captured the gruesome scene

Latest update:26 Oct 2024, 16:21 IST

Scientists have demonstrated the limits of the Burmese python’s capabilities and how large an animal it can swallow.

The border of the Burmese python’s mouth is approximately 26 cm.

In a recent study, scientists demonstrated the limits of the Burmese python’s capabilities and how large an animal it can swallow. According to a study published in the journal Reptiles and Amphibians on August 22, the python seen in the video is a female reptile that weighs about 52 kg and is 14.8 feet long. He swallowed a white-tailed deer, which belongs to the species Odocoileus Virginianus and weighs about 35 kg. The most surprising aspect of the deer was how it managed to get into the python’s mouth. To achieve this, the python had to stretch its mouth wide, opening its jaws to 93 percent of their capacity. Ian Barteszek, a wildlife biologist and science coordinator for the Nature Conservancy of Southwest Florida and one of the authors of the study, told Live Science that they actually saw a serial killer in action, and it was very strange to see it in real life. – time

The wilds of Florida are already known for large Burmese pythons. For this study, a male python named Ronin was fitted with a tracking device. He described it as the most violent and heartbreaking sight he had witnessed in twelve years of tracking pythons in southwest Florida.

According to Barteshek, this python preys on both deer and crocodiles. Furthermore, he noted that the behavior he observed was completely wild, which further emphasizes that such occurrences are very common and have been occurring for millions of years in regions where large snakes live. He also noted that no predators capable of threatening various species of animals have grown in Florida’s forests.

Burmese pythons came to the Everglades in the mid-20th century and are considered a threat to Florida’s forest ecosystem. These species were first spotted in 1979, after which they had to become fully established in the 1990s and began to prey on native species, and due to the lack of any natural predator, Burmese pythons spread rapidly here. According to experts, millions of Burmese pythons live here, which have devastated the local ecosystem and killed numerous animal species.

According to the study, the maximum mouth opening of the Burmese python was previously thought to be about 22 cm. After studying three of them, including this female python that hunted this deer, the researchers found that the limit would be about 26 cm.