Introduction |
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photo used with permission of Ed Colijn (http://www.nature-conservation.or.id/inforept.html) |
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Pythons are constrictors and therefore non-venemous. They bite into their prey with back-curving teeth and the constrict it until it suffocates. Then they swallow their prey whole by unhinging their jaw, which allows the python to eat an animal 5 times as wide as its head in one bite (WhoZoo). Pythons also rely strongly on heat sensors and a good sense of smell to catch their prey, which allows them to hunt in both the light and the dark.
Sit and wait foraging strategy:
photo used with permission of Tom Spinker (http://www.southalley.com/snakes_exotic.html) |
Pythons use the sit and wait foraging strategy in which they can endure long periods of fasting for up to a year and then devour a large meal. Unlike active foragers which hunt daily and eat small frequent meals, sit and wait foragers eat one large meal infrequently. Field studies indicate that pythons normally consume prey that weighs about 1/4 of their body weigh, but may weigh as much as 1.6 times the snakes weight (Secor and Diamond, 1998). This is equivalent to a 150 pound person eating over 200 pounds of food in one bite! Feeding intervals for pythons in the wild average between 1-2 months, but can be as long as one year (Secor and Diamond, 1998). After swallowing the prey, the python coils up and remains motionless for 5-11 days in order to completely digest the food. Then the snake fasts for a long period of time and uses relatively low energy until the next big meal.
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in Animal Physiology