« Free Typing Tutorial for Kids | Main | Manatee - It's What's For Dinner »
October 8, 2005
Python Explodes After Swallowing Alligator
A 13 foot Burmese python swallowed a 6 foot alligator in the Everglades, but subsequently exploded. So, I guess maybe this is what they mean when they say "Don't bite off more than you can chew."
Posted by Peenie Wallie on October 8, 2005 at 7:23 PM
Comments
Reading about the explosion of the snake has led me to imagine how it had occurred: If a snake eats too much, the unassimilated portion of food would soon ferment in its digestive track, i.e undergoing anaerobic digestion like what is happening in the digestors of a sewage treatment works, giving out methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, water and other end products. Methane is a useful by-product, normally being used as a gaseous fuel for runnning the tubine-generators to produce electricity for the sewage treatment works. It is particularly explosive when exposed to oxygen. Thus the snake might have suddenly exploded while trying to swallow the alligator when its internal system was already filled with explosive gases. Some air (and therefore oxygen) could have got in to react with the methane to cause the explosion.
Posted by: John Zheng on October 15, 2005 at 2:42 PM
omg dude it's soo kool dude seriously like i love them kinds of snakes!!! im getting one very soon!!
Posted by: ashley on February 8, 2008 at 11:23 AM