Python Eats Porcupine In What Turns Out To Be A Disastrous Final Meal

So who wins when a python eats a porcupine? Apparently not either animal.

A cyclist making a trek through the Lake Eland Game Reserve in South Africa this month came across a rare and bizarre act of nature, with a greedy python eating a whole porcupine.

But the bicyclist didn’t know that at first. The snake, which suffocates its prey and then swallows it whole, was seen only with a giant bulge in its midsection and no indication of what was inside. The biker shared pictures of the python and posted then online, where they got plenty of attention.

While speculation built over what the python could have eaten, park rangers soon found out the truth. The snake was found dead not far from where it was initially spotted, so rangers decided to cut it open and see what it had for a last meal.They found that the python had eaten a whole 30-pound porcupine, which helped to cause its death. Rangers said the snake had fallen from a small ledge, and the impact caused the animal’s sharp quills to impale the inside of the snake, leading to its demise.

From LiveScience, “As [game reserve general manager Jennifer Fuller] noted, pythons in the Lake Eland Game Reserve have been spotted consuming even larger prey, including adult oribi antelope, which can weigh nearly 50 lbs. (22.7 kg). Pythons possess the incredible ability to alter their metabolism, as well as the size of their organs, after a meal. This allows the a python to digest prey that is much larger than the snake is, according to a study published in 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

The story of the python eating the porcupine made headlines last week, and now scientists are shedding more light on the snake’s disastrous final meal.

Johan Marais, a snake expert, told Earth Touch News Network that porcupine is actually a common part of a python’s diet and that the death was unusual.

“Pythons do eat porcupines and usually without problems other than the odd quill stuck somewhere,” he said. “But when disturbed after a large meal, the natural reaction for a snake is to regurgitate its meal so that it is mobile again and can escape. But regurgitating a porcupine is not that easy, and I am sure that is where things went wrong.”

Those who are curious to see what happens when a python eats a porcupine can click here for more pictures, but be warned that it may be a bit graphic for some viewers.

[Image via Lake Eland Game Reserve]