Not my pic. This was sent to me by a mate, an Old Asia hand, but I cannot vouch for the provenance.
Still I do know that the two creatures most feared by Dayaks in the old days were the Sun bear and the python.
A big one can easily swallow a man
That's not a Snake. This is a SNAKE
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Not my pic. This was sent to me by a mate, an Old Asia hand, but I cannot vouch for the provenance.
Still I do know that the two creatures most feared by Dayaks in the old days were the Sun bear and the python.
A big one can easily swallow a man
Seen that pic before somewhere , the snake didn't look that big on the ground its the way the pic has come out ,perspective.
Those diggers have long arms and this one is holding the snake out to the camera. In the pic the snake looks huge compared to the digger driver, but look at it relative to the bucket of the digger. The bucket isn't much bigger than a wheelbarrow.
That said, it's still a big snake from my perspective!
That said, it's still a big snake from my perspective!
That's what I was just thinking.
Jon posted a few similar style snake pics recently, no doubt he'll be along soon to enlighten us more about this one
I posted it here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60582&highlight=giant+rats+snakes with some other examples of forced perspective used to fake snake sizes. The reticulated python in that picture was just averaged sized and not really big at all. A retic, even a small one, certainly has the ability to kill a full grown man (although exceptionally rare), but is unable to swallow one. They couldn't handle much more than a baby sized human due to the shoulders preventing them from swallowing beyond the head. There are several faked pictures of a retic swallowing humans, and similar ones with anacondas too. A few incidents have been recorded of attempts by snakes to swallow humans, but none successful.
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The fake comes full circle then back to BCUK.
Thanks for highlighting it.
Accounts by the Dayak claim that people have been swallowed by large snakes. From experience when they say something has happened it usuallly has. There may be no recent accounts and the snakes may be smaller than before due to habitat and prey species loss.
Thanks for highlighting it.
Accounts by the Dayak claim that people have been swallowed by large snakes. From experience when they say something has happened it usuallly has. There may be no recent accounts and the snakes may be smaller than before due to habitat and prey species loss.
Ive no doubt youngsters have, but its physically impossible for even a record breaking snake to swallow an adult and even youngsters being eaten would have to have had a large amount of luck involved with the position of limbs having to be at a set angle as the snake started swallowing from both feet up. The snake may grow, but the head doesn't get very big whatever length they attain. It's a perpetuated myth that snakes can dislocate their jaws, only the bottom jaw can separate, not dislocate. The top jaw/bottom jaw hinge is fixed. A large retics head is still quite small, the anacondas gets much larger, but again, still has the same problems with our anatomy that no other animal in the world has.
That being said though, large snakes have attempted to swallow people and have been discovered doing just that. They just can't complete the action though as we are the wrong shape. If a persons feet are bound and the snake starts feeding from the feet up (which is not natural for them to do), then they may succeed, and there are accounts of prisoners in years gone by who have succumbed to this fate. In certain parts of Asia, there are definite accounts of this taking place, although still very rare as snakes are not carrion eaters.
Am I missing an eyebrow?
This, along with the speed a mamba can attain, is one of the most talked about myths in herpetology. Fascinating subject.
This, along with the speed a mamba can attain, is one of the most talked about myths in herpetology. Fascinating subject.
And with that post you just clocked 4,000 posts
What's the competetion going to be?
Hmmm, let me think. Need to find a prize first.
jon my good you must ave a lot to say cos i am a chatter box and well i am only on 2000 and summing posts lol
So they do not dislocate our bones just suffocate their prey?
Not taking issue with you but why then can they swallow quite large pigs and other game?
No, they can dislocate the bones of prey, just not their own jaw bones. The prey dies of asphyxiation, and not suffocation.
Pigs and large game don't have shoulders that are abrubt and stick out like ours, and when swallowing the legs fold against the body so the prey is streamlined. It is the conical shape of the prey that stretches the snakes jaws and skin and not the snake opening it's saws wider. In short, snakes walk their jaws over the prey by muscle contraction and with their teeth. With humans, once they swallow the head, they haven't the ability to open their jaws further to then get passed the shoulders. They could possibly with young children as thier shoulders are much narrower, but the body would have to be swallowed at an unnatural position. The same is true of a leg-first swallow. Unless the feet were bound, or the snake was lucky enough to manage to take both feet in at the same time, then only one leg would be swallowed, and the snake would be unable to get passed the second leg at the crotch as it would not fold back in line with the body. The snake doesn't possess enough force to be able to dislocate the leg whilst swallowing, it's just impossible. Besides that, snakes locate the preys head and swallow from the head down, as this is the natural way an animals limbs fold against the body. Another reason snakes don't swallow feet firts, is that claws and hooves would stick out in that direction and rip apart the snakes insides.
It's not our size that is the problem, they swallow much ,arger prey than humans, it is our unique anatomy that is a problem to snakes. Even if they got lucky and managed to take in the head and one arm when first swallowing, it would be unable to get passed the other shoulder.
I've no doubt that some snakes may have got very lucky and managed to kill an adult human who may have landed with his feet crossed and made swallowing very easy from that direction, but it is a one in a million chance and snakes as a general rule, cannot eat us. They also don't see us as prey.
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Thanks for the explanation and your patience. Very clear. Now I will do my best to squelch the myth.
No problem. They could very well have had children taken and also discovered retics that were attempting to eat an adult. The stories are then repeated that a snake ate a man, which to all intents and purposes, is true, as they discovered it doing exactly that. I doubt they would let the snake live long enough to discover that it would give up.
Thanks for the info JonathanD (and the rest).
Always heard/read the stories about big ret. pythons too and took them for real since they ate larger prey too. Never thought about that.
Still scared the sh!t out of me when a Danish friend coaxed me into helping move a big python in Taman Mini Indonesia (Java, Jakarta: go visit the place Ash!) It was way bigger then the Indonesian handler, about somewhere between 2 and 3 times times me (1.86 mtr). Probably 'only' 4 mtrs but still....
Grtz Johan
Always heard/read the stories about big ret. pythons too and took them for real since they ate larger prey too. Never thought about that.
Still scared the sh!t out of me when a Danish friend coaxed me into helping move a big python in Taman Mini Indonesia (Java, Jakarta: go visit the place Ash!) It was way bigger then the Indonesian handler, about somewhere between 2 and 3 times times me (1.86 mtr). Probably 'only' 4 mtrs but still....
Grtz Johan
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