A giant reticulated python weighing 170 pounds and measuring 19.5 feet has been caught in Malaysia after swallowing a goat whole.
Footage and images of the snake being tranquilized and moved were shared by the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department, State of Johor. It took seven men to carry the snake, which was released far from human settlements later the same day.
The reticulated python is one of the longest snakes in the world, regularly reaching over 20 feet in length. The longest reticulated python on record measured over 32 feet, while the longest, heaviest snake to ever be kept in captivity is a female reticulated python in Kansas called Medusa, which clocks in at 25 feet and weighs 350 pounds.
This photo of shows Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department personnel catching a reticulated python in Kulai, Malaysia on Wednesday. The snake was 19.5 feet long and 170 pounds.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Johor
Despite widespread hunting for commercial snakeskin, these animals have managed to maintain fairly stable populations, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature categorizing them as being of “least concern” in its list of threatened species.
The fire and rescue team was called out to a goat farm in Kulai in the southern state of Johor on Wednesday morning.
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Photo of members of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department heaving the giant snake. The reticulon python is one of the longest in the world.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Johor
Photo of members of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department heaving the giant snake. The reticulon python is one of the longest in the world.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Johor
Photo of members of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department heaving the giant snake. The python weighed 170 pounds.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Johor
Photo of members of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department approaching the giant snake. The snake threw up the whole goat after the team tried to extract it.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Johor
“Upon reaching the destination, we found a six-meter snake inside the goat pen,” a spokesperson from the Johor Fire and Rescue Department told Malaymail. “The breeder claimed that one of his female goats was missing and was believed to have been swallowed by the snake.”
After heaving the snake from the goat pen, the rescuers proceeded to extract the goat from the snake’s mouth.
Reticulated pythons are native to southeast Asia and, although they are usually found in woodlands, grasslands and rain forests, they have shown themselves to be adaptable to different habitats. In Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysian Borneo, they have even been spotted in sewers.
A stock image of a tropical rain forest in Malaysia. The reticulated python is found most frequently in woodlands, grasslands and rainforests.
Ramdan_Nain/Getty
These animals are carnivores, subsisting mostly off birds and mammals, including large animals like deer and pigs. To do this, they have evolved jawbones that are able to move independently of one another, allowing them to swallow such large prey.
Unlike our own, their lower jawbones are not fused together but are loosely connected by a flexible ligament that allows the snake’s jaws to spread apart.
A stock image of a python swallowing a deer. Snakes can move their lower jawbones independently, allowing them to swallow large prey.
JedsPics_com/Getty
Like all constrictor snakes, the reticulated python is non-venomous and kills its prey by suffocation. Attacks on humans are rare but not unheard of: there are numerous reports of people being eaten by these snakes, including a woman in Indonesia, whose body was found inside a 23-foot python.
Source: https://www.newsweek.com/newsweek-com-enormous-170lb-python-caught-swallowed-goat-1747537