INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Python Eats Porcupine, Dies Soon After: Was The Porcupine To Blame?

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 08:01 PST, Jun 29, 2015

When a python eats a porcupine, the results could be deadly.

A 12-foot-long African Rock python was spotted shortly after it made the decision to eat a porcupine for dinner. A biker passing by saw the snake with a huge bump midway through its stomach and decided to snap a quick photo, which he later shared on social media.

CNN originally broke the news, detailing the account on Saturday. The picture had many people curious as to what was in the snake’s belly, and several of them trekked up to the Lake Eland Game Reserve to check out the python for themselves.

On their Facebook page, the Lake Eland Game Reserve shared photos of the python and revealed that it had since died.

“Sadly, the African Rock Python that became an overnight sensation has been found dead. The 3.9m long Python was found to have ingested a 13.8kg Porcupine. Autopsy showed Porcupine quills lodged in the snakes digestive tract.”

While the official cause of the python’s death has yet to be determined, it is speculated that the porcupine quills led to its demise.

“With all the human interaction, this could have caused stress and the python would then regurgitate the meal up with all the quills causing a problem,” said game reserve manager Jennifer Fuller.

Many people are wondering how a snake can digest something as large as a 30 pound porcupine. A previous report by the Inquisitr explains how snakes devour their prey.

“Pythons, in particular, are able to eat larger prey because they have the ability to alter the size of their organs and their metabolism. As for how they are able to get sizable prey inside their bodies in the first place, pythons have two lower jaws that can independently move of each other and a quadrate bone at the back of their heads that loosely attach their jaws to their skulls. This is what allows their jaws to move around freely, not simple dislocation, to accommodate prey of any size.”

What do you think about the python eating the porcupine? Leave your comments below.

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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