VIDEO: Leopard Attacks and Eats Giant Python

Animals fight all the time in the wild.

They fight for supremacy, for territory and for food/staying alive.

That’s what wildlife is about – kill or be killed!

This hungry leopard decided to have python for lunch.

According to Live Science, because of their bulk, pythons move by scooting forward in a straight line. This is called “rectilinear progression” movement, according to the San Diego Zoo.

Pythons stiffen their ribs for support against the ground then lift their bellies and push themselves forward. It is a slow form of movement and pythons can’t go more than 1 mph (1.6 kph).

Many species of python are excellent swimmers, while others are arboreal, according to Viernum. “They hang from branches with their prehensile tails.”

Pythons have different diets, depending on their size. Small pythons, such as the anthill python, eat mostly rodents, lizards and small birds.

Bigger pythons eat mammals as big as monkeys, wallabies, antelope and pigs. According to the San Diego Zoo, a rock python was once found with a small leopard in its stomach. According to an article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, there have been reports of the large reticulated python attacking humans.

“Pythons are nonvenomous ambush predators,” said Viernum. “Some species are capable of swimming and may lie partially submerged in shallow water waiting for prey to visit the water body.”

It is a myth that arboreal pythons, such as the green tree python, launch themselves from branches onto prey below. This could cause serious injury to the snake. Rather, they lie still on a branch and wriggle their tails to lure in their prey. They strike while still in the tree, according to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

After they’ve grabbed their prey in their long teeth, pythons kill it by constriction. Contrary to popular belief, constriction does not mean crushing.

Pythons and other constricting snakes do not use their strength to break their prey’s bones. Many scientists think that pythons suffocate their prey, squeezing the prey’s ribs so that it cannot breathe.

In 2015, however, a paper revealed the long-held suffocation theory to be incorrect in boa constrictors, probably the most famous constrictor. The paper revealed that squeezing overwhelms the circulatory system, cutting blood off from the brain and causing death.

Scientists are looking into whether other constrictors, including pythons, also use this method.

When the prey is dead, pythons slowly open their jaws and swallow the prey whole, head first. Once the meal is consumed, pythons rest in a warm place while they digest.

The timing of python mating season depends on the species. When courting, the males use their large spurs (vestigial limbs) to stroke the female, according to Viernum.

“All pythons are egg layers (oviparous),” said Viernum. This sets them apart from boas, the world’s family of other large constricting snakes, which give birth to live young.

According to Wikipedia, in 2017, there was a recorded case of a human devoured by a python in Sulawesi, Indonesia. All prey is swallowed whole, and may take several days or even weeks to fully digest.