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Indonesian villagers claim to have captured a python that is almost 49 feet long and weighs nearly 990 pounds, a local official said.
The Associated Press - 8:04 a.m. ET Dec. 31, 2003JAKARTA, Indonesia -
If confirmed, it would be the largest snake ever kept in captivity.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...5a.hmedium.jpg
Hundreds of people have flocked to see the snake at a primitive zoo in Curugsewu village on the countrys main island of Java.
Local government official Rachmat said the reticulated python measured 48 feet 8 inches and weighed in at 983 pounds.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists the longest ever captured snake to be 32 feet. The heaviest a Burmese Python kept in Gurnee, Ill. weighs 402 pounds, the book said on its Web site.
The Indonesian newspaper Republika said the snake, which was caught last year but only recently put on public display, eats three or four dogs a month.
Reticulated pythons are the worlds longest snakes. They are capable of eating animals as large as sheep, and have been known to attack and consume humans.
The species is native to the swamps and jungles of Southeast Asia.
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Zoo's monster python could be off the scale for size
By Tim Moore / The Times of London
Coil slowly unravelling over heavy coil, a reticulated python named Fragrant Flower moved menacingly around its new home Monday in a tiny Indonesian zoo.
If the snake were to stretch out, officials say that it would be 14.85 metres - half as long again as a double-decker bus - and would be the longest snake in captivity.
"If the length of the snake is confirmed, then it would be 50 per cent larger than any other snake known to science," said Richard Gibson, curator of herpetology at London Zoo.
The snake, which is said to weigh 447 kilograms, was purchased from a man who caught it in a forest in Sumatra last year. It was brought to the zoo in the village of Curug Sewu.
"The largest snake that I have ever handled was around four metres," Gibson said. "Anything over three metres is getting too much for one person to handle. It would take eight or 10 men to subdue a snake this size."
It is a rule of thumb among snake-catchers that reticulated pythons more than 7.6 metres can open their jaws wider than the width of human shoulders - the necessary width to eat a man whole.
Fragrant Flower breaks the record for the longest snake, which has stood for 91 years, held by a reticulated python of 9.98 metres that was shot in Celebes (now Sulawesi), Indonesia. The heaviest snake previously recorded was a female anaconda, which was shot in Brazil in 1960 and estimated to weigh about 227 kilograms.
If Fragrant Flower is longer than 30 feet (9.1 metres) then its hunters could qualify for a $50,000 US prize, instituted by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912.
Robert Twigger, who wrote about his two attempts to win the prize in his book Big Snake, was suspicious about Fragrant Flower.
"Really long snakes look twice their length. Ask someone how long a three-metre snake is and they will say six metres. They just seem bigger psychologically."
Local newspapers said that Fragrant Flower eats three or four dogs a month. Samantha, a 7.9-metre python at the Bronx zoo and the previous holder of the longest snake in captivity title, used to be fed one 11- to 15-kilogram pig each month, dead but served warm. Samantha took 15 minutes to swallow the pig, and a week to digest it.
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They are the identical pics; the web page author of the link I posted just forced the images to display in a slightly larger image container on the web page, that's all.
Anyway, that reticulated python is one big-ass snake. The only think I want over here from Sumatra is their coffee beans.
:cool:
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I was afraid this was another Hoss thread.:eek:
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Giant snake stories are as commen as fish stories and 99.999% of them turn out to be bogus. Right know the largest snake ever known to have been kept in captivity is a bermise python named Baby that lives in a roadside exibit. The last time I heard she was a little over 28 ft. The brox zoo once had a reticulated python that was 29 ft but she was nowhere near as heavey as baby since retics are more slender snakes than burmise pythons, anacondas, and african rock pythons (the other giant snakes thought to reach around 30 ft). The reticulated python has long been considered to be the worlds longest snake, but if this reported size is within 15 ft of being true it would still be a record. But history is full of phoney claims and there are no preserved remains of a modern snake anywhere from a snake measuring over 30 ft in the flesh. All of the skins around this size have been found to have been streached (they can streach to almost double in length) or multiple skins stiched together.
P,S. the snake in the picture posted is nowhere near 49 or even 30 ft in length and looks smaller than Baby. The snake in the photo looks to be about 22-23ft in length and is clinically obease for a retic.
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Still fascinating. I think snakes are beautiful. Alive. :) I have a healthy respect for the poisonous ones and I'd probably be a bit intimidated by the sheer size of the big ones like those mentioned so far but I'd still like to see one up close. It would be cool to touch a snake that big. I like the feel of snake skin (not the shed ones). :) Cool post MMD.
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"KENDAL, Indonesia - Its still a big snake, just not a record-breaker.
When a recreation park in Indonesia put a huge reticulated python on show last week, keepers insisted to reporters it was 49 feet long. That made it the longest ever caught.
But amid growing skepticism of the claim, a photographer working for Reuters returned to the Curugsewu park in the small central Java town of Kendal on Wednesday with a measuring tape. The snakes true length -- around 21 feet.
I have no idea why the snake has shrunk, said one keeper when asked about the discrepancy, as the snake lounged on a tree branch inside its cage.
According to the Guinness World Records, the longest discovered snake was also a reticulated python from Indonesia. It was 33 feet long when found in Sulawesi island in 1912.
Record-breaking or not, word of the huge snake in Kendal has spread, tripling the number of visitors to the state-run park, normally known just for its scenery and waterfalls."
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It appears I was being generous when I guessed it to be 22-23 ft.:wink:
