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Pythons
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Southern African Rock Python (Python sebae natalensis)
Photo and information credits: Stephen Kangisser Wildlife Photography "Python seen at the entrance to the H10 from the H1-3 today along side the road" from Kruger NP.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 (12-29-2016, 03:34 AM)Ngala Wrote: Southern African Rock Python (Python sebae natalensis)As far as I know nataliensis is recognized as a distinct speciees. very cool, and large animal though. G'day mate  *This image is copyright of its original author
Python gets the better of a smaller alligator:
 *This image is copyright of its original author "You hear a big splash in Big Cypress, chances are it’s an alligator diving into the swamp, most likely after being startled from a roadside sunbath by an approaching human. But this was one big splash followed by another big splash. And another and another. I stopped my bicycle to see what all the ruckus was about. Right there, just off the edge of Loop Road, no more than 15 feet away, an alligator was rising tail first and belly up over the surface of the water and then plunging back down. It was clear it was moving against its will. Then, as the gator rolled over and sank, something else came into view: the muscular coils of a very large snake. It was a sight, I would learn later, that's rarely witnessed in the wild -- an alligator being attacked by a Burmese Python. It was all at once terrifying, mesmerizing and beautiful, a battle between predator and prey that at times looked as graceful as a water ballet. Once I got the iPhone video rolling, I couldn’t stop watching. I’ve seen lots of alligators in the wild, from canoes in Riverbend Park in Jupiter to bike rides in West Palm Beach’s Grassy Water Preserve to hikes in Everglades National Park outside Miami. But until I pedaled my mountain bike along a shell rock road 7 miles south of the Tamiami Trail on the morning of Dec. 21, I had never witnessed the grand spectacle of a gator being attacked by a large coiling serpent. Aside from the birds perched on cypress branches above the swamp, I was the only spectator. Although I’d missed the initial ambush, what I watched for 15 minutes from my ringside seat wasn’t much of a fight. The gator was visible only in brief glimpses as it rolled through the water against its will: Its pale belly, its clawed limbs, its thrashing tail. About six feet long, it was at the full mercy of the python, all 15 feet of the snake — that’s the size estimate one local would offer after watching the video. And this python was hard to miss. With giraffe-like blotches across its body and a head topped with an arrow-shaped blotch, it moved like a slinky on steroids, slowly squeezing the life from the poor gator. They were joined as one, a twisted knot plying the water. They would sink like an anchor, wrestling in the depths and stirring the water into a dark silty soup, and then rise to the surface again as the stubborn gator refused to give up the fight. The alligator’s best punches were limited to futile swings of the tail that missed python’s head and struck the water with a splash. After the first two minutes of action, I was lulled into turning off the video. There had been no movement in the water for what felt like an eternity but was more likely just 60 long seconds. Show’s over, I assumed, and I turned toward my bike. Splash! The water erupted again. Just before I could get the video rolling again, I caught my only glimpse of the alligator’s face as it broke the surface of the water. It’s jaws opened and closed, biting at nothing, before its head disappeared into the murky depths. It looked like the poor guy was crying for help. It went on like this for another 10 minutes or so before a long calm set over the swamp. The water receded to a flat sun-speckled surface revealing a mirror image of cypress and palm trees stretching into the clouds above. Then, like a periscope, the python’s head silently breached the surface and surveyed its surroundings. Just below, its coiled body with those distinctive giraffe spots could be seen in what I assumed was a fatal embrace with the alligator. The action had pretty much ended. So, I took off on my bike. For the next five miles, I passed dozens of alligators sunning themselves in the weeds by the road, a few diving for cover into the swamp as my bike tires crunched across the shellrock. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the poor gator in the clutches of the python. On my way back nearly an hour later, I stopped by the battle scene again. The fight appeared to be over. All was calm on the water except for the snake’s head, still peering over the surface in the same area I’d last seen it, its body still coiled below like a stack of tires, its tongue darting out of its mouth. A tour guide at photographer Clyde Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery, about 5 miles east of Loop Road on Tamiami Trail where I rented their “Swamp Bungalow” for two nights, watched the video on my phone and thought the python could’ve been 15 feet long. (The longest python ever caught in Florida measured 18 feet, 8 inches long, according to state wildlife officials.)  *This image is copyright of its original author he called and left a message with details about my encounter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which encourages the reporting of python sightings. “That video is amazing. That’s something you don’t see every day,” David True, a Big Cypress National Preserve park ranger, said a day later when I stopped by the Welcome Center on my way home. “Our park biologist will be very interested in seeing that.’’ he called and left a message with details about my encounter with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which encourages the reporting of python sightings. “That video is amazing. That’s something you don’t see every day,” David True, a Big Cypress National Preserve park ranger, said a day later when I stopped by the Welcome Center on my way home. “Our park biologist will be very interested in seeing that.’’ Pernas encourages anyone spotting a python to log it on the Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System, which keeps track of invasive species. He said he was looking forward to seeing my video. “I’ve been working with invasive species since 1988 and I haven’t heard of anybody telling me they witnessed a python eating an alligator. It’s pretty rare,” he said. As far as anyone knew, the python was still at large."  *This image is copyright of its original author http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/video-big-cypress-bike-ride-watched-python-wrestle-alligator/YmShcrbLaGlyXpIFJyiUlM/
Adult indian pythons seem to have a preference for ungulate prey, something substantiated by Tales of Giant Snakes: A Historical Natural History of Anacondas and Pythons
*This image is copyright of its original author
 *This image is copyright of its original author A large scrub python dining on a wallaby at Wongaling Beach. http://www.cairnspost.com.au/pythons-photographed-eating-wallabies-across-far-north/news-story/36468056ac97721b6f6933c0b7a58f3e
Catching a wild ~3m reticulated python, it is easy to forget how wiry and agile these animals are until you see them in action
Wild leucistic indian python from Karnataka, India
"On 18 February 2016, we found a white Python molurus(Figure 1A) near the road side in jungle habitat in Kuppepdavu, Karnataka, India. Kuppepdavu is a small town, 27km north of the city of Mangalore. We captured the snake and housed it in Pilikula Biological park. The white python was identified using keys provided by Daniel(2002) and Whitaker and Captain(2008). The female snake had a total length of 1.8m. Dorsally, the snake is white with small light brown spots on the head. The eye is blue, which indicates that the leucisism is the homozygous form of the "mojave", "less", or "russo", all of which represent incomplete dominant expression of slightly different alleles of the same gene. Normally, Python molurus molurus(Figure 1B) is yellowish to brown with asymmetrical dark brown, black-edged blotches. The eye is brown. It is reported that leucism can be inherited and also skip generations if leucistic genes are recessive. The extent and positioning of the loss of pigmentation can vary individually. This leucistic python is being maintained in captivity at Pilikula Biological Park for observation and breeding along with other pythons..."  *This image is copyright of its original author http://www.phyllomedusa.esalq.usp.br/articles/volume15/number2/152199200.pdf 
@Paleosuchus :
About #39: it looks like a spotted hyena. Thus this is an african python: rock python or Seba python (python de Séba in french) ? In any case no the biggest one (5-6 meters long), so that is really incredible, a sort of record... In addition to that, so that a python eats an hyena, the snake had to kill it before. Yes, incredible !
Yup it's a spotted hyena and an african rock. there is another record of this species having taken a hyena "the size of a goat", but it is a written record and not visual. Indeed, it is very cool!
  
EXTRA-LONG PYTHON
This python was captured in 2002 in Sumatra (Indonesia) and taken to a zoo in Java. As a result of many rumours about its length (30 feet and more, they said) and weight (up to 447 kg.), it made headlines. Although not even close, it was a large python. Most pythons in the extra-long division range between 20-23 feet, at times a bit longer. This one might have been close to 23 feet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=218opwX8N-8 |
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