Python Swallowed Zoo Owner's Head in One Gulp - Neatorama

Cleaning the cage of a really hungry 12-foot, 126-lb tiger python. What could go wrong? Here's the story of one Renate Klosse, zoo owner, who just had an intimate tour of a python's mouth:

'The jaws of the snake opened so wide that, with one lunge, she was able to completely cover the woman’s face,' said a police spokeswoman. 'She feared that with a few more gulps her head would be inside.'
Renate instinctively stuck her thumbs into the jawbone of the snake to try to get it to relieve its pressure. Colleagues then sprayed water hoses on to it and it finally slithered off.

What happened next?

Renate needed hospital treatment for bites and shock. Antonia had to settle for a supper of live white rats instead.

And the moral of the story is: feed the animals BEFORE you go in their cage. Full snakes are not going to try and eat whatever walks in their cage next.

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@ Ashley

Or, no snakes at all! ;) Why not a box full of cute otters?

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This, combined with the snake head chomper a couple days ago, has me in a very heavy state of imagining this scene. Screw youtube, I like my version.

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i can only imagine what was going through that womans mind while it was happening...

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It is sad to hear about things like this. Pythons that large eat so rarely the fact that one in a zoo is hungry is kind of a shame. A good size meal will last a python that size for up to 6 months. It just means they don't feed their animals as much as they should.

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This is why we need to phase pointy hats back into our culture.

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Sara: Yeah, but how can you accurately judge exactly when an animal needs food? If you're feeding a snake every 6 months, what if it got to be a week before the feeding date and you cleaned the cage? Wouldn't the snake be hungry? I know 10 minutes before lunch time I'm usually hungry...and I also know that overfed snakes have a really hard time moving around, when they actually accept the excess food.

So it's a balance between knowing exactly when to feed, how much to feed, and when to avoid the snake cage.

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