Here’s proof that a Burmese python, depending on the size, can devour an alligator whole. These x-ray images show the digestion process unfolding over the six days after feeding.
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- One day after feeding
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- Two days after feeding
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- Three days after feeding
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- Four days after feeding
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- Five days after feeding
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- Six days after feeding
Images courtesy of Dr. Stephen Secor and Dr. Scott White
4 Responses to “Photos: Python Digesting an Alligator”
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If it is ok with you guys, could you E-mail me these pics so I can study them more? P.s. I am doing research on snake diegestive systems right now, and these pics would help be alot!
“Depending on the size” indeed. Depending on the sizeof the alligator! From the skull in the first photograph, it is obvious that this is a very young alligator, probably around 18″ in length and not more than two feet. The python is probably no more than 2 metres long – not exactly a giant. For all the hysteria about 30 foot pythons running amuk, I have worked with giant snakes all my life and find any snake over 20 ft. in length, in the wild or in captivity, to be rare. Snakes over 24 ft. in length are exceedingly rare, and the few records of 30 ft. snakes, if accurate (and most are dubious), are likely to represent genetic anomalies, and do not represent a true “maximum length” for the species, any more than the existence of 8 ft. tall glandular giants indicate that humans typically attain such heights.
that was pretty cool
Iv’e worked with both wild and captive snakes.I have encountered several species in excess of twenty feet.In our specimen collection at the university of Florida, there is clear evidence of snakes growing much larger than twenty feet.