Exploding snake: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:02, 29 May 2007

Revision as of 00:05, 11 November 2007

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There has been one documented case of an '''exploding snake''', whereby a [[Burmese python]] burst. The 13-foot (4 meter) [[snake]] had swallowed a 6-foot (1.8 meter) [[alligator]] whole. Rangers of the [[Everglades National Park]] discovered the carcasses in [[October 2005]], but they could not locate the snake's head. Frank Mazzotti, a professor from the [[University of Florida]], suggested that the alligator had tried to claw its way out of the snake. Alternative hypotheses suggest the alligator could have already been dead, or a third animal was involved.

An urban-legend website, Snopes, suggests that after ingesting the alligator, the snake was possibly cut open and beheaded by another individual (either a human or another predator). Snopes also proposes that a gas build-up caused by the decompsingdecomposing alligator could have ruptured the snake's body, and that its head was eaten by scavengers.

The incident was noted as a sign that alligators' supremacy as a predator is not a certainty in the wild. Mazzotti also noted that a human discovery of such a battle between these predators was rare.