Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

The place to talk about fieldtechnics, the stuff you use in the field and everything else

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Ruggero M. » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:54 pm

Dear friends, I don't understand the need to think that the man was already dead and eaten by the python as a carrion.
The combination of two extremely rare events (a man who dies in the forest - why? killed by a cobra bite? killed by his jealous wife? killed by a heatstroke? + a huge retic which finds the dead body and eats it) is surely not more probable than a single very rare event (a small man killed and eaten by a huge retic). At least if we apply the Occam's razor way of thinking... ;)
Retics are shy to attack humans?
My german friends keep many retics in one huge terrarium, and one of this retics is so bad tempered that tries to attack, kill and eat every living creature which is present near him: my friends must keep this snake away with a large broom, and sometimes this animal tries to "kill" (= constrict) and eat even the broom! Not all the snakes of a same species are the same...

If we don't know any other detail of the story, the most probable and logical way of thinking is that the man was killed and eaten by the snake, exactly as if the man's body would have been found inside the stomach of a bear, a shark or a crocodile...
Ruggero M.
 
Posts: 673
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 7:15 pm
Hometown: Pavia
country: Italy

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Frédéric Seyffarth » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:47 pm

Hello all,

There are a few documented cases of Python eating men in the book "Snakes of Sulawesi" by De Lang and Vogel (Chimaira editions). These snakes are like others, they hunt mainly in a "sit and wait" method. But they are so big...If a man walk in the range of a big hungry snake, he is a prey as another. It is rare but it can happens.
I heard some stories of keepers attacked by some giant snakes in captivity as Ruggero reports and i really trust a 6 or 7 meters retics to be able of kill and swallow an indonesian man (they are often of small constitution)...
I lived in french Guyana and apart some stupid fakes stories, there are some exceptionnal cases when people were bite and undergo a constriction by some big Eunectes. In all attacks the snakes released there rings when they (perhaps) felt they were with the wrong prey...the following is a story i've been told by someone i trust: In the site of "Petit saut" a small Indian was caught when he passed under a submerged trunk. He was carrying a can of gas oil. The latter opened under pressure and the gas oil spread over the snake and into the water. It is supposed that this is what forced the snake to release its hold.
I don't want to write stupidities or tease the "myth" of giant snakes but i just give honestly my opinion about what i read or heard.

Rare, but not impossible...

Regards
Frédéric Seyffarth
 
Posts: 119
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2013 7:13 pm
Hometown: Husseren-Wesserling
country: France

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Fri Mar 31, 2017 8:51 pm

Ruggero Morimando wrote:At least if we apply the Occam's razor way of thinking... ;)

Thanks, Ruggero for "stealing" the very argument I wanted to employ - just in front of my nose,
but you were quicker... Congrats on that, as well as on everything you wrote, so I don't have to
bother doing it myself. Thanks for the trouble.
Yes, the (in)famous Occam's razor...

Frédéric Seyffarth wrote: Rare, but not impossible...

Yes, Frédéric, all you wrote makes very much sense. Thanks to you, too.

Case closed, I would say...
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Ilian Velikov » Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:22 pm

Ruggero & Frédéric,

Thanks for sharing your views. That's what I was trying to induce. All you said makes sense and I can't argue with it but I did learn a few interesting things.

The only thing I'd say is that for me the captive examples are not relevant exactly because not each individual of a species is the same, and I personally wouldn't compare captives with wild ones when it comes to temper and habits.
Ilian Velikov
 
Posts: 1216
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 12:19 pm
Hometown: Pravets
country: Bulgaria

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Sat Apr 01, 2017 2:09 pm

Ilian Velikov wrote:The only thing I'd say is that for me the captive examples are not relevant exactly because not each individual of a species is the same, and I personally wouldn't compare captives with wild ones when it comes to temper and habits.

True, in principle, but bears little relevance to the original question - whether or not a man was eaten by a 7-m python.
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Ruggero M. » Sat Apr 01, 2017 3:11 pm

Ilian Velikov wrote:Ruggero & Frédéric,

Thanks for sharing your views. That's what I was trying to induce. All you said makes sense and I can't argue with it but I did learn a few interesting things.

The only thing I'd say is that for me the captive examples are not relevant exactly because not each individual of a species is the same, and I personally wouldn't compare captives with wild ones when it comes to temper and habits.


Captive bred snakes tend to be tamer than wild specimens. This is the main difference. The contrary never happens. So: if a captive bred retic is always so hungry and bad tempered to try to eat even a broom and to literally let "explode" a sheep or a pig during constriction, you can argue what the same guy in the wild would or could do to humans...
Ruggero M.
 
Posts: 673
Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 7:15 pm
Hometown: Pavia
country: Italy

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:22 pm

Ruggero Morimando wrote:Captive bred snakes tend to be tamer than wild specimens. This is the main difference. The contrary never happens.
So: if a captive bred retic is always so hungry and bad tempered to try to eat even a broom and to literally let
"explode" a sheep or a pig during constriction, you can argue what the same guy in the wild would or could do to
humans...

Strangle and eat them, of course, if they are manageable enough - that is, not too big. We've seen the proof. The only
difference in comparison with sharks, crocs, bears, lions &c, is that in the latter cases one wouldn't find the victim in
one piece, only SLIGHTLY digested, and easily recognizable - but in ugly pieces, needing the help of a pathologist...

BTW, and somewhat off-topic, but the question has troubled me for a long time: Regarding BEAR attacks on humans,
in most cases the humans survive them (albeit sometimes with really bad injuries), but I've NEVER read a report of a
human having been actually EATEN UP by a bear. Are there any?
A bear can kill a (young) horse and eat it - I've seen the remains, that is, the remaining parts of skeletons. So, why not
a human? Do we stink (to them)?! Allegedly, even some cannibals declared that the flesh of "Europeans" (or "whites") is unpalatable (to them), being "too sweetish", with a somewhat "foul" smell and taste... (Lucky us, the "whites"...!) Well,
could the bears maintain the same level of distinction/refinement/taste? Why don't they EAT us?
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Bastien Comment » Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:07 am

Hi!

Was curious to see feedbacks from the forum. At first I've thought it was a fake but your arguments make sense. Which pushes me to agree with my wife who now can say "see that, I had told you that some snakes can be mean"... ;-p
Bastien Comment
 
Posts: 192
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2010 10:12 pm
Hometown: Lausanne
country: Switzerland

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Berislav Horvatic » Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:24 am

Bastien Comment wrote:At first I've thought it was a fake but your arguments make sense. Which pushes me to agree
with my wife who now can say "see that, I had told you that some snakes can be mean" ... ;-p

Well, why mean? Just hungry and ready & willing to do something about it... if they can.
What's so wrong with that?
Berislav Horvatic
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Wed Jun 03, 2009 4:35 pm
Hometown: Zagreb
country: Croatia

Re: Missing man found in belly of 7m-long python

Postby Michal Szkudlarek » Sun Apr 02, 2017 12:31 am

Berislav Horvatic wrote:
Bastien Comment wrote:At first I've thought it was a fake but your arguments make sense. Which pushes me to agree
with my wife who now can say "see that, I had told you that some snakes can be mean" ... ;-p

Well, why mean? Just hungry and ready & willing to do something about it... if they can.
What's so wrong with that?

just antropomorphisation
User avatar
Michal Szkudlarek
 
Posts: 1118
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2011 12:09 pm
Location: Poland
Hometown: ...
country: Poland

PreviousNext

Return to FIELDHERPERS CAFE´

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests