Just returned from hunting in RSA with Lochi Lochner as my PH and guide. While hunting the Limpopo Province just a few km's from Alldays we came across a strange experience.

We were searching for that elusive bushbuck that had been giving us the slip for 4 days now and as we moved a across an earthern dam we heard a noise half-way between a young blue wildebeest and an impala on the lower side of the dam which was extremely thick and thought possibly it was a bushbuck or something. So myself and the tracker went to a vantage point in order to check and see what may have made the noise, while Lochi and my wife stayed behind.

No sooner had we gotten to our destination then my wife let out a shriek and out from the lower section came a large 10-12 foot python. I reprimanded her for not taking video of the episode.It gave her a bit of a fright, but she calmed down quickly and after analyzing the situation we were wondering if the initial sound we heard could have been this python?

By a strange coincidence, I picked up an old copy of Man Magnum laying about and in it was some hypothetical info about pythons making a loud (for a snake) exhaling sounds.

I was wondering if this was true and if any of the more experienced have heard of such things?

Thanks,
BigBullet

BigBullet,



According to my nature guide, large constrictors often make such a sound when they are in close proximity to a human female, it's the old Eve-and-the-serpent thing. It was probably a sigh of passion from the lovesick snake as he contemplated the possiblility of your wife being his next "main squeeze".



Sorry, I couldn't resist...



My son, myself and 5 other hunters are headed to that same area in a little over 3 weeks...how were the nite/day temps?



We will be there for 7 days from June 24th through the 30th and bushbuck is on my menu. Were you able to take one?

SMACK or THUD ...
Depends what you shoot 'em with.

I have heard smaller snakes making
a loud exhale noise.

Jeff

"main squeeze", indeed.

At one time, I was "all wrapped up" in constrictors, too and can attest to the possibility of such vocal capabilities, usually emanating from adult, or near adult, specimens, when startled. Rock pythons and retics for the most part but I've also heard boas do this. Can't say I've heard Indian, Rainbow, Burmese, Ball or Anacondas (yellow) do so but I assume them able, under the right conditions. Generally, the African Rock pythons and Reticulated Pythons are nastier and more prone to exhibiting this sort of thing. Just my opinion. Some North American water snakes make similar noises when upset.

RHS,

No, we did not find the bushbuck. We know they were there because their tracks were everywhere. But for some reason we couldn't locate one. You will find that the area has had considerable rain and the brush is quite thick. Also there is water everywhere, so laying in wait at the dams was pretty pointless. Though we did manage a warthog from the dam.

Even the river was wet and there were many areas were the animals dug down 6" and there was water.

Overall, it was tough hunting. I did take a nice waterbuck in this location and was quite satisfied that we tried everything we had to locate the sly bushbuck. The tracker said they were too smart for us.

Oh well, that's hunting. Best of luck on your hunt.

BigBullet

A 10 foot Python skin would be a really nice trophy, in my view. Question is, A) can you kill them, and B) can you bring the skins to the USA? I wanted to do in a big Puff Adder last time--for the skin and also to eat--at least try it, as rattlesnake is good, but could not get any cooperation from the coloreds or the PH. They just wanted to get gone, fast. They couldn't believe I dug out the camera and took it's picture. I don't like snakes none at all, but a Puff Adder or Python skin would be just AOK in my trophy room.

BigBullet,

Thanks for the field report! Hopefully, things will dry out some in the next 27 days. We will be in the bush the morning of June 24th...and I want a Limpopo Bushbuck, as old and long-horned as possible. Glad you got the Waterbuck, I hear that is the place for them. I'll give a full report when we get back on July 2nd...

RHS

Hope you post some pictures of your hunt! I saw a gunshop in Rome that had a python skin go across a wall and halfway across the next and was really beautiful...

I recently returned from RSA and was suprised at the number of snakes we came across. 10 days of hunting and encountered snakes on 5 of them. Puff adder actually bit the boot of my game scout one day. You are correct, the phs and trackers do not like the reptiles! I have a picture of one of the adders I will try to post later.

Yes, large pythons can make a fairly load sound when exhaling air if you disturb them.

As far as I know, they are what's called "royal game" (or somethign like that) and may not be killed or exported under ay circustances.

You know, I've noticed that I can also detect female pheremones but the only red showing is the hand print across my face whenver I try to get close enough to tell which one it is.
The other sound often heard around a large snake is the scream of the person they bite. It is really hard to describe how much it hurts having all those pin sized teeth going into your hand at one time.
My children's teacher had a ten-foot boa that was as gentle as a bunny with the kids but I stuck my hand into the enclosure and that rat-eater took offense and let me have it. My kids still tease me about the shriek I let out when it bit down.

With snakes I have always learned if you can hear it breathing, it may have a respritory infection, so I hope never to hear any of my reptiles making noise. I would assume they could make hissing noises, but they shouldn't be very loud at all. The only noisy contricters I've heard before are the ones on the TV.



Sevens

Thanks all for your informative and comical answers. My wife thought none of them funny though, oh well! Anyone else have exerience of this kind?

BigBullet

I used to run into pythons in our elephant area once in a while . They are protected in Ethiopia but one of our road crews came in with a 15 footer they killed. It ended up skinned and stretched around the local drinking establishment (a hut). I used to take a spear and smack em on the tale to make them hightail it out of the area. Yes, they do hiss. Later on a client (John Jackson, actually) sent me a video of a 15 or so footer they came across sleeping in our Omo Valley area. Jack, luckily, had just gotten back into the vehicle and was still videoing the python when it woke up. It literally charged the landrover as it drove away and struck the wooden rub rail open mouthed with an audible thud. The video captured this. I'll not be smacking any more of them on the tail again!

Rich Elliott

So----is the answer that snakes are basically protected in most African countries and the skins can't be brought into the USA?

Sorry to hear that the bushbuck gave you a slip. I can personally attest to the fact that Bigbullet and Lochi hunter hard from early morning to late afternoon (been there seen it myself). The bush was thick and there was losts of grass on that particular concession.

Pythons are protected game in all of the South African provinces I checked for. The likelihood of persuading the local nature concesvation official to issue a permit to shoot one in South Africa is very slim. So take a video or photo, as it is all, other than the memory, that you are allowed to take back.

Bigbullet, how about doing a formal hunt report?

Regards,

Verewaaier.

Thank you, Verewaaier. How about Puff Adders? Beautiful skins. And Black Mambas? Not a pretty skin, but if I ran across one, I wouldn't mind the skin as souvenir.

Arts,

I shot a black mamba with a 12 gauge shotgun in Zimbabwe a few years ago. The skin sort of vanished.
Rich Elliott

Hey, if I ever see one, I hope I can make skin and all vanish, pronto! But if the skin survives----

I have posted this before but it is belongs here again!







This is about a 15 footer that caught an Impala or Duirker the morning this photo was taken.

And yes they do hiss when disturbed

amosgreg,

Are you sure thast wasn't somebody's kid in there?

Rich Elliott

Why did younot shoot it ?
The skin is very nice on a belt.

Cheers,

Andr�

What a greedy smake could it move around like that ?
Thay is one cool picture you got there.

Cheers,

Andr�

amosgreg:

I am sure we all would like to hear the story as to how you got that python, to begin with. Yours is perhaps the only photo I have ever seen of a dead python with his meal inside him! ( and I have seen anaconda in Panama's Darien country) You mention about hissing but I think the original post was about a noise like air coming out. I saw an anaconda up against a river bank and my attention was drawn to him because of some kind of noise I heard. Maybe it's air being forced out as the snake moves. I saw the loops in and out of the water. (I was told that he was about 12-14 feet)My father wouldn't let me shoot (I was 16)because the snake was not attacking us and showed no sign of wanting to do so. (We were in a cayuca (hollowed out log canoe)Your picture truly is unique besides being fascinating.

IMHO it would have been unethical to shoot something that you come across by pure chance while hunting for a zebra. Furthermore it would have been illegal for a number of resons, like no written permission of the land owner, no license, protected game, no CITES permit etc.
Verewaaier.

gerald416
She is alive in that picture and we left her that way!
The picture was taken on the first day of my first safari in the Natal region. We were driving a road looking to find a nyala we could stalk just after lunch time when Dennis the tracker pounded on the roof of the truck. We backed up and low and behold there she was with her mate, about 12 feet long. He was staying near her and in looking around we saw the area where she struck the antelope and killed it. Very neat!!!!
Dennis and the second PH then caught the male. The one thing I will say is they are faster than I would have believed. We let him go 5 minutes later next to the female and left quickly. We drove by 2 days later and I can tell you the digestive system is truly amazing as the bulge was significantly smaller. Not so much that it is noticable in a couple pictures I have got(none scanned) but a definate decrease in size!
Hope that helps clear things up.
And yes it is one of the coolist things I have ever seen!

Well most of you guy know I am pretty old, but I had one of those pythons ask me if I liked apples once..wish I had turned that one down...

Large pythons can indeed emit rather loud noise under a variety of circumstances.

Pythons have two lungs, one large and fully functional with the second organ being very small and nearly vestigial. Boids, e.g., boa constrictors, anacondas, etc., have forgone the second lung thus enjoy an improved respiratory system. Think of boids as 'new and improved' pythons from an evolutionary standpoint.

Serpents possess an epiglottis which is an organ similar in nature to a medical trach tube. It communicates with the trachea and opens at the frontal region of the mouth allowing the snake to breathe while having a fully obstructed oral cavity such as when feeding on large prey. The epiglottis is what the snake activates to emit an hissing sound. Some species, such as the North American bull snakes, have refined this behaviour to a high degree.

The African rock python is fully capable of loud hissing when threatened or surprised. Additionally, certain movements during locomotion can result in a sound similar to air escaping rapidly from a large balloon. When the snake is positioned with several bends in its body, respiratory function is obstructed. This is no problem for the snake as their respiration rate is extremely slow, typical ectothermic physiology. When the snake then initiates locomotion, the air may be forcibly expelled from the lung(s) involuntarily and, in a large snake, can easily be heard from a distance.

Keepers of captive constrictors will hear such emissions from their snakes when they are allowed to crawl about the keepers body. Locomotion through scrub and rocks will also cause the snake to inflate and deflate, if you will.

Serpents have no diaphragm thus cannot truly cough or forcibly emit air directly from their lung(s). Additionally, the lack of a diaphragm means they cannot regugitate, only vomit. If a snake imbibes a large amount of water at a sitting, a person can pick up that serpent, tilt it head down, and pour much of the water right back out! This is also why one should not handle a captive snake for a period of time after it has fed.

I am not familiar with the game regs of Africa and thus cannot comment upon the legality of taking a python opportunistically. Exporting a python, python part, live or dead, would require a Cites permit. While I'm sure this has been done before without said permit, I certainly would not want to take such a chance. If exported to the US without a Cites permit, Customs would absolutely invoke the Lacey Act in addition thereby making the act felonious in nature.

If one truly desires a python hide for display, there are numerous captive bred specimens available on the market which could be purchased, euthanised humanely, and then skinned and tanned appropriately.

Regards to all.

~Holmes

Appreciate the info. That's fine, but I would only want one if I acquired it myself, thus "trophycized" it. Good, interesting info.