Reticulated Python

The reticulated python is the largest snake native to Asia. More than a thousand wild reticulated pythons in southern Sumatra were studied and estimated to have a length range of 1.5 to 6.5 m (4.9 to 21.3 ft) and a weight range of 1 to 75 kg (2.2 to 165.3 lb)

Taxanomy

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Reptilia
• Order: Squamata
• Suborder: Serpentes
• Family: Pythonidae
• Genus: Malayopython
• Species: M. reticulatus

Diet

As with all pythons, the reticulated python is an ambush hunter, usually waiting until prey wanders within strike range before seizing it in its coils and killing by constriction. Its natural diet includes mammals and occasionally birds. Small specimens up to 3–4 m (9.8–13.1 ft) long eat mainly rodents such as rats, whereas larger individuals switch to prey such as small Indian civet and binturong, primates, and pigs weighing more than 60 kg (130 lb). As a rule, the reticulated python seems able to swallow prey up to one-quarter its own length and up to its own weight. Near human habitation, it is known to snatch stray chickens, cats, and dogs on occasion.Among the largest documented prey items are a half-starved sun bear of 23 kg (51 lb) that was eaten by a 6.95 m (22.8 ft) specimen and took some 10 weeks to digest. At least one case is reported of a foraging python entering a forest hut and taking a child.

Assualts on humans

The reticulated python is among the few snakes that prey on humans. Attacks on humans are not common, but this species has been responsible for several reported human fatalities, in both the wild and captivity. Considering the known maximum prey size, a full-grown reticulated python can open its jaws wide enough to swallow a human, but the width of the shoulders of some adult Homo sapiens can pose a problem for even a snake with sufficient size.