Content deleted Content added
rv bad edit |
No edit summary |
||
Line 1:
There has been one documented case of an '''exploding snake''', whereby a [[Burmese python]] burst. The [[snake]] had attempted to eat an [[alligator]] whole, but exploded mid-meal. Rangers of the [[Everglades National Park]] discovered the explosion in [[October 2005]], but they could not locate the snake's head; the alligator had also died. Frank Mazzotti, a professor from the [[University of Florida]], suggested that the alligator had tried to claw its way out of the snake, causing the explosion. Alternative theories suggest the alligator could have already been dead, or a third animal was involved.
Snopes offers other possible alternative explanations. The python ate an alligator (possibly an already-dead one it came across), and some other agent — probably human — killed the snake, chopped off its head, and cut open its midsection, exposing the as-yet undigested gator. Or, another alligator came along and bit the snake's stomach and then decapitated it with it's mouth. Or, the rotting gator meat inside the python caused a build-up of gases which ruptured the snake's body, and after the python died its head sank into the water, where it was eaten by scavengers.
The incident was noted as a sign that alligators' supremacy as predators is not a certainty in the wild. Frank Mazzotti, a wildlife professor at the [[University of Florida]], remarked that a human discovery of such a battle between these predators was rare indeed.
| |||