Tiger python swallowed a 35-kilogram deer (video)

Scientists were amazed by the picture that opened before them: a female dark tiger python swallowed a 35-kilogram carcass of a white-tailed deer.

The size of the victim reached approximately 67% of the snake’s mass, and its mouth stretched to its limit at the moment it swallowed the animal. Biologists from the environmental organization Conservancy of Southwest Florida made a unique video:

Previous researchers like tells Russian Traveler publication believed that the maximum width to which dark tiger pythons can stretch their mouths does not exceed 22 centimeters, but they turned out to be far from the truth. One of the authors of the study told to Live Science:

“This was the most impressive sight we've seen in the 12 years we've been tracking pythons in southwest Florida. It was truly something primal and felt like a scene that had been playing out for millions of years in the habitats of large snakes. Unfortunately, our native Florida wildlife has not evolved with this apex predator, and you see that result in these photos and videos.”

In his research, which published In the journal Reptiles & Amphibians, scientists analyzed the maximum mouth stretch of three dark tiger pythons (including the deer-killing predator, which was the smallest of the subjects, at just 4.5 meters). They were amazed when they realized that the maximum size of the mouth of these reptiles reached 26 centimeters – previously scientists thought that 22 centimeters was the limit. It's no secret that dark tiger pythons kill deer and even alligators. And the species was recently spotted in Bangladesh consuming a reticulated python.

A dusky tiger python (Python bivittatus) eats a reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus).

The jaws of dark tiger pythons are not fused in front, so they can stretch their mouths wider than other snakes, and indeed sometimes choose victims that become a real challenge to their abilities.

For residents of Florida and any areas where this predator lives, the images will be an excellent reminder of the threat that pythons pose to ecosystems. Not only can they swallow large animals, but they also reproduce actively – females can produce dozens of eggs during one season. So conservationists control the population of dusky tiger pythons in the United States in the absence of large predators to do it for them—mostly through the euthanasia of females to which they are brought by males equipped with tracking devices. This is what happened to the female python in the photo, to whom the researchers were led by a potential suitor. But she was busy…

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