World longest snake died.
World's longest snake dies – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
A little back ground on Fluffy.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The zoo paid $35,000 to
the snake's breeder in Oklahoma to keep the
reticulated python on permanent display. While on
loan last year, the python helped draw 1.53 million
visitors, just under the zoo's attendance record of
1.56 million set in 2006, said Pete Fingerhut, the
zoo's associate director.
Fluffy is about as long as a moving van and thick as
a telephone pole.
Bob Clark, the breeder from Oklahoma City who
raised the python from a hatchling, initially resisted
the zoo's purchase offer but said he's happy with
the outcome.
"I really love that snake; I think it's a special animal,"
he said. "It's so big and tame and wonderful. But I
have to deal with the realities of life like everyone
else. I like to have the money, and I know she's got a
great place to live there."
The Columbus Zoo doesn't buy animals very often,
said Executive Director Jerry Borin. Its animals
generally come as exchanges from other zoos or
through breeding loans or donations, he said.
Fluffy is on display in a 25-foot enclosure with a
pool and a few plants, where he eats two 10-pound
rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia
eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and
lizards when they're small and graduating to pigs
and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.
The largest known reticulated python, named for the
cross-hatching patterns on their skin, was 32 feet, 9
1/2 inches when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.
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