Python Believed to Suffer Remorseful Death After Swallowing a Porcupine

Although Africa has always been a popular tourist destination for its mystical dessert safaris and wild reservoirs, its exotic and rare species are also taking the spotlight by storm.

Lake Eland Game Reserve in South Africa is known for its cinematographic ambiance and tranquility. But just recently, a giant snake known to be a python was found lifeless at its rocky ledge. Upon noticing the incredibly visible figure shaping its stomach, experts believed that the last meal may have been the cause for its remorseful death.

A huge python was found lifeless at its rocky ledge of Lake Eland Game Reserve.

Game keepers cut the dead four-metre African rock python open and was surprised to extract the digested 30lb-porcupine. Many believed that Mr. Spikey must have at least tried to defend himself by puncturing the snake’s insides with its razor-sharp quills.

When game keepers cut open the python, a bloody 30lb porcupine greeted them.

The snake’s innards had been lacerated by dozens of quills perhaps during the digestion process.

Although Reserve General Manager Jennifer Fuller said that the exact reasons for the snake’s death are unclear, one potential cause might be the lodging of the porcupine’s quills inside the digestive tract.

“We don’t know if it died beforehand or whether the fall drove some of the quills into its digestive tract”, shared Fuller.

While a porcupine’s indestructible sharp quills remain a threat to its predators, experts assumed that the python relied on the thermal or chemical sensory mechanisms to ambush poor spikey before the break of dawn.

Source: DailyMail