Biggest snake in the world (49 feet, 1000lb)

[Wuntu Menny]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a weiner!

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I guess they shouldn't have whacked that 4m off the snake or it might have been a contender. LOL!!

WM

[KarlSnake]

OK, now we're getting somewhere on this side of honesty & reality. Many thanks to "Scales Zoo" for the hyperlink to the new article, The Guardian for their followup, & the intrepid Mr. John Aglionby.

The illustrious Mr. Darmanto must have been Phineas T. Barnum in a previous reincarnation.

6.5 Meters = 257.01" = 21.4175' = 21' 5"
7.0 Meters = 276.78" = 23.0650' = 23' ¾"
100 kgm. = 220.46# = 220 # 7.36 Oz.

Having not eaten for 6 weeks isn't much in the way of a reasonable explanation or excuse, either.

"We found monkeys, pigs and even porcupines but no dogs,"

Perhaps the locals ate all of the dogs before the retics could catch them. Myself, I love dogs & could never feed one to Little Snooky. Besides, there's a family living up the street that will gladly "'wok' a dog'" & there just aren't any strays around here for some reason.

"It was a guy called Mr Alek from a laboratory at Gadjah Mada University," Musta been Mr. Smart Alek. At least it wasn't somebody from Texas A & M - they can't even stack firewood without committing mass suicide.

"[Darmanto's story] is exceedingly consistent. These giant pythons always shrink whenever a tape measure turns up." This part has gotta be true - one of the (unpublished) predictions from Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity about moving clocks, massive objects, big snakes, & tape measures.

""When he's at his full length he's much softer and I can push my finger in much further. And his body is much fatter too, perhaps up to 50cm in diameter." I poke the body: it seems pretty squidgey and closer to 20 cm across. But locked inside a cage with what is undoubtedly a mammoth and extremely dangerous snake, even if it is not a record-breaker, is neither the time nor the place, I reckon, to tell his protective owner I think he is talking baloney."

50 cm = 19.685..." - barely plausible & only if that's where the last 5 dogs are tucked away after eating & before digesting them.

20 cm = 7.874..." - from the pictures, this seems just a bit on the shy side of smaller than the appearance, but, snakes are not uniformly cylindrical, either. My best guess is a maximum diameter of around 10".

A bit of good civilized manners, perhaps, because Mr. Darmanto IS talking baloney, or, if you prefer, the semisolid fecal excrement from the anus of a male of the genus Bos.

"There's no real way to age snakes but by the number of scars and from the proportion of the size of the head to the body [on photographs of Fragrant on the internet], I would guess it's a young big snake, perhaps five to eight years old." He says the longevity record is probably about 50 years for a python kept in a zoo in St Louis, Missouri.

Dave Barker is a VERY credible source. Various literature sources cite a longevity of 40 to 55 years - the later from the St. Louis specimen with 5 years added on as estimated compensation for its age at acquisition.

I think the only accurate way to know the longevity for sure is to hatch one, keep it until it croaks, then publish the data. In some ways, a retic can be more of an heirloom than anything else, sort of like a giant tortise. <G>

It will be interesting to see if any of the other reporting organizations have the integrity to replicate & verify the outstanding job by The Guardian.

IMHO, Baby, Fluffy, Marcy, & the late lamented Samantha & Colossus don't have anything to fret about, at least not for quite some time.

Hopefully, now that there is some credible reporting going on, the hullabaloo will die down & we can all get back to business.

[djc3674]

here is another article falsifying their claim.

http://snopes.com/critters/wild/bigsnake.asp

[Murse]

A UK reporter went & measured the snake at about 6.5-7 meters (22 ft)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0...116074,00.html

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Yup, what Murse said.

[KingFfaj]

yer my paper says its a 50ft snake weigh over 70stone, thats double the record, I nearly wet my self
then decided that the fools that wrote my news paper wouldnt know a 50 ft snake if it came and bit them on the ***
oh well

[snakehunter]

Actually i think you would know if a python that big bit you in the rear!

[KingFfaj]

yer and some of the people who write the daily mail could do with being eatern by a large snake

[boa]

April issue reptile magazine said that retic was 21 feet thats still a big retic.

[Cruciform]

Just saw this thread appear in the updated threads section

Since there's been some fact checking going on, thought I'd point out something in KarlSnake's post above about "wokking the dog"
Strays are typically not eaten, unless the family is starving. They purchase dogs for eating in markets the same as we would with poultry and beef. When shopping for rats, they pick the ones they want and they're butchered on the spot.
Many chinese neighborhoods have dogs that run loose with no fear of being eaten. It would be very offensive to butcher and eat someone elses pet, or an unclean stray.

That being said though, I think the rat market in Canada really needs a boost. With the BSE scares and stuff, if we got a good ad campaign going we could market rats to both herp breeders and the general public. KFC or KFR anyone? :P

[KingFfaj]

your a sick sick man
"To fathom hell or soar angelic
Just take a pinch of psychedelic."
and sombody feed you to this giant retic

[NewLineReptile]

I think the Biggest retic in captivity right now is "HUNTER" from little rays I am not sure but if not it would be up there in the top 3

Brandon

[JimmyDavid]

I never heard of that snake. How long and heavy is she?

[NewLineReptile]

I will find out tonight and let you know

Brandon