My son found this python under a bush over the weekend after he obviously had something fairly large for a meal!

Wonder what he had to look like that?

A goat perhaps?

Do Pythons get stretch marks like women do? What are the natural enemies of pythons? It would seem that they are pretty vulnerable in this condition.
Peter

quote:

Do Pythons get stretch marks like women do? What are the natural enemies of pythons? It would seem that they are pretty vulnerable in this condition.

They don't get stretch marks and as far as I know don't have many natural enemies. It would be fairly easy to catch in this condition but you might want some help.

Beautiful!!!

Peter, Pythons this large have few enemies as they are quite secretive/reclusive and while they can move some distance, they typicaly do it over longer periods of time, typically they are not very active, unless hungry, which is seldom if they eat meal this large!! Johan Strydom in SA did research on pythons, he places transponders (like go into ivory, rhino horn etc) under pythons skins (much like tagging a fish) and then if people caught them as problem animals and took them to his snakes park he would see if they one of his research pythons and over the years massed range data for them around Hoedspruit/Mica/Orpen etc.

Smaller pythons are of course prey for a host of bird and smaller mammal predators and as with other snakes, the number one 'predator' is probably paved roads! (and large farm machinery).

Fires also kill them very easily, due to their limited speed.

Some, estimated of course measures? length/diameter

Any chance the snake is stuck in the bush pending further digestion? It looks as if it might have the front end through some branches that the "Bulge" cannot follow and, due to the front passing through a few other narrow spots, it might be difficult to turn around?

Tex21 -
Must have been some type of small game that was swallowed - juvenile Impala or similar sized animal. No domesticated goats in that area.

Steve Malinverni -
According to my son ± 2.5 to 2.8 meters in length - diameter difficult to guess or estimate.

stubbleduck47 -
We have seen pythons lying up to three weeks in one place for digestion to take place and allow them to only then move on again.
Só, might well been stuck for the moment, but nothing serious I would say.

Looks like a nice sized Python Sebae - African Rock Python. I have a baby one as a pet (along with other various pythons, big and small). Females can go over 20ft, while males are a bit smaller at 12-15ft.

Very interesting. Small duiker or steenbok, perhaps? Or baby antelope of some variety.