Can a snake eat a human?

[Serpent]

Hi everyone,

Got these recently, sorry if its been posted before. Not sure where they're from (the guy in the picture with camera looks Asian) but it looks pretty real. What do you think? Possible? The last time we got a 'snake eats someone' story here, they killed the snake while it was in the midst of swallowing the guy. This snake seems to have managed to get the whole guy in.

Serpent

Edited January 23, 2007 by Lottie
removed due to image of death.

[Four Winds]

Hi everyone,

Got these recently, sorry if its been posted before. Not sure where they're from (the guy in the picture with camera looks Asian) but it looks pretty real. What do you think? Possible? The last time we got a 'snake eats someone' story here, they killed the snake while it was in the midst of swallowing the guy. This snake seems to have managed to get the whole guy in.

Serpent

I think a large Boa or Anaconda would have no trouble eating a human, especially a smaller one.

[The Silver Thong]

The answer is yes, as said above the Anaconda most definitly has been responsible for human deaths. A 20 foot anaconda can eat a 7 foot croc, and animals such as deer, small cattle. A human that gets to close to the water, or stumbles across one in wait will have very little chance. They can wiegh many more times then an average man and trying to fight one off once it has you, good luck.

[glynne64]

I think a larger boa or anaconda could. If they are able to feed on deer, pigs, etc. why wouldn't they be able to feed on humans? Big snake site If ya want to find out...I'll go first! Right after you.

[El Barto]

On the National Geographic Channel they were talking about this. There was a case where a park ranger or somebody came upon an anaconda eating a man in the forest. He could hear a wierd gasping-like noise coming from the snake. What that was, was a protruding air tube to assist in its breathing as it ate larger animals or people. It appeared to be having trouble, though. What happened was that the man was positioned in a certain way that the shoulders prevented the snake from eating the guy whole. If he was positioned at a different angle, the snake could have had its fill.

[Mattshark]

Hi everyone,

Got these recently, sorry if its been posted before. Not sure where they're from (the guy in the picture with camera looks Asian) but it looks pretty real. What do you think? Possible? The last time we got a 'snake eats someone' story here, they killed the snake while it was in the midst of swallowing the guy. This snake seems to have managed to get the whole guy in.

Serpent

Yes green anacondas and reticulated pythons (the snake in those pics, but I heard that they were faked and the man lay there after a pig carcas was removed) and potentially Burmese pythons. No others as far as I am aware a really big enough.

[The Silver Thong]

Yes green anacondas and reticulated pythons (the snake in those pics, but I heard that they were faked and the man lay there after a pig carcas was removed) and potentially Burmese pythons. No others as far as I am aware a really big enough.

I have heard that the pic was faked as well, but still a large anaconda can and will eat people givin the oppertunity.

[Libranaster]

Well from my research it would take something like a full day for a snake to swallow a human being even a big snake. It would take days for a snake to digest a human and it is very possible that the snake would die from such a thing. This stuff looks pretty real, if it is not real it is still spine tingling.

[The Silver Thong]

Well from my research it would take something like a full day for a snake to swallow a human being even a big snake. It would take days for a snake to digest a human and it is very possible that the snake would die from such a thing. This stuff looks pretty real, if it is not real it is still spine tingling.

It would probably leave the snake exausted swallowing a human, maybe take a few hours maybe more, and after eating a meal like that it would diguest it over a period of weeks and might not have to eat for months. There is a video out there of a snake eating a baby hippo and that weighs far mor then I at 165 lbs. A human body is actualy a pefect food for a large snake, no horns, no fangs or claws let alone hooves. We are generaly slender where these creatures live. If I was a large constrictor I would go after humans all the time, far less dangerous minus the guns and what not.

[Libranaster]

It would probably leave the snake exausted swallowing a human, maybe take a few hours maybe more, and after eating a meal like that it would diguest it over a period of weeks and might not have to eat for months. There is a video out there of a snake eating a baby hippo and that weighs far mor then I at 165 lbs. A human body is actualy a pefect food for a large snake, no horns, no fangs or claws let alone hooves. We are generaly slender where these creatures live. If I was a large constrictor I would go after humans all the time, far less dangerous minus the guns and what not.

Thanks for that silver thong it has been a long time since I have researched this stuff and I wasn't sure on my facts. I do know that it happens especially in jungles and stuff because the snakes are really big out there. I suppose it depends on the type of snake too. I don't think human would be a food of choice though I mean we must taste awful really and we would be all fatty and yucky. Plus the foods we eat aren't natural and I honestly think that I can remember it being said in the report I was reading that we make snakes feel sick anyway. So I don't think they would exactly go out of their way to make an effort to eat us when they can swallow something smaller much more quickly and without the pesky ranger hacking you open to get the person back out lmao. But I can understand if they feel they are in danger of course they would eat you. I think its hard to say whether it would or would not eat a human considering the question of species and the fact we cannot know everything about animals because there are parts of the jungle that go unexplored and my guess is they are unexplored for a reason and we may just have found it lmao.

[MUM24/7]

The first pic looks suspiciously like a still from the movie "Anaconda 2 " but the other two look real enough....Looks like the snake has swallowed an animal to me.....

[Four Winds]

I wonder how nutritious we are compared to their other prey? <-- That's something you don't hear everyday.

[draconic chronicler]

Yes green anacondas and reticulated pythons (the snake in those pics, but I heard that they were faked and the man lay there after a pig carcas was removed) and potentially Burmese pythons. No others as far as I am aware a really big enough.

Actually, there was a recent, authenticated case of an African Rock python swallowing a boy while his horrified friends looked on in a tree, and escaped whent the snake left. But I don't know of any reliable cases of adults being swallowed by this species.

As the Nat. Geo. program pointed out, it is very difficult for all but the largest snakes to stretch their jaws over an adult humans shoulders, unless they take them in sideways.

[Ashley-Star*Child]

Yeah, I believe an Anaconda could definantly eat a human whole. Creepy.

[iain c]

what if you managed to only get one leg in it's mouth,what then?,would it choke to death,or would it suck off the leg?

[kenshinx]

phyton can eat children or small people. like in Sulawesi, indonesia

[+Paranoid Android]

what if you managed to only get one leg in it's mouth,what then?,would it choke to death,or would it suck off the leg?

I think it would definitely be possible for a large snake to devour a human (quite a chilling thought, actually - I'm having flashbacks to the swamp scene of "King Kong" right now). If it tries to take a fully fit human though, it may be possible to try and get a single apendage in the mouth so that it finds it impossible to swallow anymore of you. As painful as that is, that's possibly your only chance.

The problem with this of course is that the snake may very well try and choke the life out of you first, wrapping itself around your entire body so that you don't have a chance to do that, and probably suffocate well before you reach gaping maw.

This is of course a layman's perspective only. I am no expert on the feeding habits of large snakes (with the exception of bad B-grade flicks like "Anaconda").

[Mattshark]

phyton can eat children or small people. like in Sulawesi, indonesia

Yeah they are reticulated pythons, which are all over S.E Asia. Most likely the longest snake in the world.

Can't say I that suprised about the rock python, I'd just not heard any cases of it.

[frogfish]

Yes, many species have eaten humans. Like stated before, both species of Andaconda, the Reticulated Python, and The African Rock Python. The Indian python has also eaten children before...

[Sea_maid13]

*shrugs* if one is big enough, it could easily eat a small child. Not that it's a bad thing......

[TooFarGone]

Many snakes can take down large game......deers, antilopes, zebras, oxes. So yes, if a human were in range, then they'd be quite an aeasy target for large snakes.

[draconic chronicler]

I think it would definitely be possible for a large snake to devour a human (quite a chilling thought, actually - I'm having flashbacks to the swamp scene of "King Kong" right now). If it tries to take a fully fit human though, it may be possible to try and get a single apendage in the mouth so that it finds it impossible to swallow anymore of you. As painful as that is, that's possibly your only chance.

The problem with this of course is that the snake may very well try and choke the life out of you first, wrapping itself around your entire body so that you don't have a chance to do that, and probably suffocate well before you reach gaping maw.

This is of course a layman's perspective only. I am no expert on the feeding habits of large snakes (with the exception of bad B-grade flicks like "Anaconda").

I have kept large pythons, and can say that normally they would suffocate a large mammal, like an adult person, but would probably swallow a human baby alive if it found one in a crib. In the wild they will not waste the energy to suffocate small helpless animals such as nestling birds or baby animals.

There are many species of snakes that do not constrict or poison their prey but swallow all of their victims alive. The largest non-poisonous snake of the U.S is one of these. The indigo snake which can grow to about 8 feet and will swallow prey as large as rabbits alive, holding them down with their coils but not suffocating them.

With your Biblical background you may be interested to know that in ancient Jewish scriptures that supplement the Bible, God sends a huge serpent or dragon to swallow Moses for not circumcising his Son, but orders the creature to spew him up when his quick thinking wife circumcises the baby in the nick of time. In different versions, the creatures name is Satan, Uriel, Af or Hemah. You can see the place where this was taken out of the standard Bible. I bet they didn't teach you that in Sunday School.

[+Paranoid Android]

^Well, I never went to Sunday School, DC. I didn't become Christian until my post-high school days. But I was wondering how exactly you'd bring dragons into this discussion

[draconic chronicler]

^Well, I never went to Sunday School, DC. I didn't become Christian until my post-high school days. But I was wondering how exactly you'd bring dragons into this discussion

Simple, really. You are pondering snakes swallowing people alive in this thread, so I mentioned there is a Biblical story about the same thing. I'm not sure what part of that you don't understand, and thought you, of all people here, would have found that interesting.

Edited January 24, 2007 by draconic chronicler

[Ashley-Star*Child]

OMG, dragons are brought into a snake discussion. Oh and Uriel isn't a Seraphim, just for reference. The angel God sent to Moses was Metatron, formerly Enoch, one the the highest ranking angels and most definantly NOT a dragon. He has 36 pairs of wings and is covered in eyes.