The expression “so hungry I could eat a horse” might not just be a figure of speech – for the Burmese python, at least. These snakes can reach about 5.5 meters in length and weigh up to 90.7 kg, and there are reports of people who have seen them swallow deer, goats and even alligators.
It was long thought that the size of the python’s head and body allowed it to devour huge prey, but that’s not the only thing that determines what’s on its menu, reveals a recent study published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology.
What matters most is how wide she can open her mouth.
“A common misunderstanding is that snakes displace their jaws to swallow prey,” Bruce Jayne, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cincinnati and lead author of the study, told CNN .
“The main thing about these animals is that they have jaws with great mobility – but there is no displacement,” he explained.
Instead, the python is able to devour its prey thanks to an elastic piece of connective tissue that connects its lower jaw to its skull. The bone structure at the front of the mouth also helps.
“The left and right bones are not fused (in the chin). That’s a profound difference between our lower jaws and a snake’s,” Jayne pointed out.
Another important factor is that the extremely elastic skin around the jaw allows the python’s mouth to stretch even further around its prey.
And there’s even a difference: “They have additional bones in the roof of their mouth, unlike us, who have teeth,” he added.
While humans have one row of lateral teeth, snakes have two – one of which “runs along”, according to Jayne. These rows of teeth “swing back and forth”, dragging prey further towards the stomach.
The researchers wondered if there is an even greater limit to the opening of some of the largest pythons.
“You always have to be careful when extrapolating your data, but it wouldn’t be surprising to me if a really large Burmese python could have an aperture diameter of about 30 centimeters,” Jayne pointed out.
Does this mean that if a large python got really hungry, it would be able to eat a horse? “Maybe they could eat a pony,” replied researcher Jayne.
Impact on wildlife
Scientists examined 43 sacrificed Burmese pythons. The team measured the mouths using a series of 3D-printed plastic objects, checking how far each snake could stretch its mouth.
The largest probe was 22 centimeters in diameter. Only one snake had a mouth big enough to swallow the object – a 4.3-meter, 63.3-kilogram python.
Unlike snakes, vipers and rattlesnakes, a Burmese python is not venomous. It does not kill its prey with its bite, but by asphyxiation, wrapping itself around the victim and squeezing its muscles tightly to constrict blood flow before swallowing it.
Pythons have recently proven to be a threat to wildlife in the United States. South Florida’s Everglades National Park was once full of deer, raccoons, skunks and foxes, but in recent years, fewer and fewer of these animals have been seen in the area.
This led to the return, last August, of the annual conservation initiative called Florida Python Challenge (Florida python challenge), which has lured hundreds of professional snake hunters to the Everglades to kill non-native reptiles.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the South Florida Water Management District first hosted the 2020 ten-day event. The action was supported by private partners and non-profit organizations.
“The Everglades ecosystem is changing in real time based on one species, the Burmese python,” said study co-author Ian Bartoszek in a press release. He is an environmental science project manager for Southwest Florida Conservation.
For more than a decade, Everglades National Park officials have been researching how to effectively remove invasive species from this fragile ecosystem, according to the US National Park Service website.
A 2012 study referenced by the site suggested that the growing number of Burmese pythons, which likely arose when captive snakes from the pet trade were released into the wild, could be linked to severe declines in mammal populations in the Everglades habitat.
But the latest study led by Jayne suggests it may not just be smaller mammals that are at risk from python overpopulation, but much larger ones, including deer and alligators.
Source: CNN Brasil
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