Recently, Indonesian villagers discovered a giant python inhabiting a palm grove, which was quietly hidden under the trunk of a dead tree. Because the presence of pythons poses a serious threat to the personal safety of local people, it has to be "controlled".
So the snake catchers and some local villagers worked together to trap them. They first kept tapping the trunk with their tools to see if the python under the trunk could climb out on its own. But it did not react, the snake expert moved the dead tree trunk away, the python immediately showed an aggressive posture, the person next to it immediately shook the cloth in front of the snake's eyes, induced, the python bit the cloth, at the same time the surrounding villagers immediately rushed up to successfully capture the snake. After measurement, this giant python body is up to 9 meters long, in fact, 6 to 7 meters of python is already a large snake, and the 9 meters found this time is really rare.
There are frequent reports of pythons in Indonesia, and there have been many cases of pythons devouring humans. So, why are there so many pythons in Indonesia, and why do pythons often hurt people? How long is the world's largest snake?
Pythons are large primitive snakes that are distributed in tropical and temperate regions around the globe. Pythons have no venom glands, are non-venomous, have a large and long body, and can reach a length of 6 to 10 meters. There are about 20 species of pythons known worldwide. Most are terrestrial or semi-aquatic, while others are arboreal. What we found in Indonesia this time is that we are inhabiting under trees, so it may belong to terrestrial or arboreal populations.
Located in the tropics, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic country, composed of more than 17,500 large and small islands, known as the "Land of a Thousand Islands". The climate is typical of tropical rainforest climates, with high temperatures and rainy temperatures throughout the year, and small temperature differences. The terrain is dominated by mountains and hills, with a forest area of nearly 140 million hectares, a forest coverage rate of more than 60%, and animal and plant resources are very rich. Whether it is from the climate or topographic environment, it is very suitable for the growth of pythons, so the python resources here are also very rich, and they are huge. For temperate animals, the higher the temperature, the larger their size. So, how long is the world's largest snake?
If you want to talk about the world's largest snake, if you also count the snakes that have been extinct in the history of the earth, you have to mention the ancient prehistoric python "Titan Python". The average body length of the titan python can reach 12 meters, the largest even more than 14 meters, weighing more than 1 ton, and the thickest part of the body is about 1 meter wide, and the body size is very shocking.
Scale models such as Titan Python
Living in the rainforests of northern Colombia in South America about 60 million years ago, the Titan python is the largest carnivore that lived on land since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, this python went extinct about 58 million years ago.
The largest surviving snakes today are nothing more than the subfamily Aphid and the python subfamily, and the representative species of the two giant snakes are the forest crab and the reticulated python.
The reticulated python, also known as the overlord python, belongs to the large python and is known as the longest and most lethal snake in the world. They are more slender than the forest nymph. Most of this python is found in Southeast Asia, with a small number in the Amazon Basin.
They have long inhabited tropical rainforests and swamps. Reticulated pythons that survive in the wild can generally grow to about 7 to 8 meters, weigh up to 100 kilograms, and perhaps there will be larger individuals who have not been discovered and recorded by humans, but those records of more than 10 meters, the data are unreliable, there is no evidence to prove, is not credible.
The record holder for the world's longest snake, currently officially listed in guinness, is a reticulated python named Medusa. It is reported to have a total length of 7.67 meters and a weight of 158.8 kilograms.
The very famous giant python "Osmanthus Flower", also a reticulated python, was discovered in 2002 in a primeval forest on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, when it was recorded to be more than 14 meters long and weighed 447 kilograms. But this set of data was later revealed to be a misdemeased, when the python was molting, and the surveyor measured the snake skin under the molt, and later the snake experts measured the true length of the osmanthus again, the actual data was about 6.5 to 7 meters, the weight was 100 kilograms.
Due to the destruction of the living environment and human hunting, the number of reticulated pythons has decreased sharply and is now an endangered species. In recent years, it has been often heard that reticulated pythons have swallowed humans, especially in Indonesia.
Because of the development of the local palm oil industry, humans have cut down forests and reclaimed grasslands. Because the reticulated pythons have been seized and destroyed in their natural habitat, and there is no prey to fill their stomachs, this forces them to have nowhere to hide, and they begin to intrude into the human living environment, and when they are hungry, they can only attack passing humans as food.
The forest hopper, commonly known as the reticulated python, is one of the largest snakes in existence, although its length is inferior to that of the reticulated python, but compared to the reticulated python under the same body length, the forest crab body is more stout. The giant forest crab is as thick as the torso of an adult man, so it is heavier than the reticulated snake, and is known as the heaviest snake in the world. They inhabit areas such as the Amazon basin in South America, usually in swampy areas close to water's edges, gentle-flowing rivers, and tropical rainforests.
They crawl slowly on land, but they are water-loving and can become very quick and agile when they move in the water. So how long is this snake? Females (females are longer than males) have an average body length of 4.6 m and an average weight of 56 kg. The longest and heaviest forest crab currently recorded in the scientific community is a female snake that is 5.21 meters long and weighs 97.5 kilograms. Silkworms over 6 meters long are very rare.
Forest grasshopper skeleton
Snakes are an important link in the earth's ecosystem, and in China, most of the snakes are protected species. Snakes are terrible, but in general, they will not actively attack people unless they are threatened. But if you encounter a snake in the wild, it is best to avoid it from afar.