Discovery of Giant Python Engulfing Unusually Large Prey Prompts Indonesian Residents to Cut Open the Reptile to Determine if it Consumed Human Flesh.
A man named Agus encountered this giant python on May 16th while collecting resin from trees in the Rompegading forest in Maros district, South Sulawesi province, central Indonesia. Suspecting the predator with its unusually large belly had consumed human flesh, Agus and his brother decided to capture the animal.
Due to its full stomach, the python couldn’t resist and was easily captured. The two brothers then used ropes to drag the creature onto a main road and contacted other residents to bring it back to the village.
“We cut open the animal to check if it had eaten human flesh, but it turned out there was only a calf inside its stomach,” Agus said.
Many witnesses exclaimed that it was the first time they had seen such a large python. It measured 7 meters long. According to local reports, this gigantic creature might be responsible for recent livestock disappearances in the area, including calves, goats, and chickens.
With extraordinary strength and lightning-fast strikes, large pythons like reticulated pythons, anacondas, and African rock pythons can easily squeeze and even swallow an adult human. There have been two recorded cases of reticulated pythons consuming humans in Indonesia. However, such incidents are extremely rare. Generally, python species tend to avoid human encounters.