carsten..........obviously you are not very occupied......
it normally chooses to sit on the delicate part of the body

Pippa:

Thanks so much for mentioning the scopions. I have only seen one in ten trips, and I would have missed that one entirely had the askari not pointed it out. We were walking back to the tent after dinner on the sandy red Tsavo soil and he told me "don't walk there". When I asked him what he saw he pointed out a very small scorpion.

I think I could handle your way of capturing and releasing them with no problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sitting Cobra - Usually found around Athens with a cigar in his mouth not doing much....
Looks like Pippa knows her snakes well and their habits..... ahahaha

This one is dedicated to Jan

African Rock Python (Python sebae)

The Rock python is Africa's largest snake. The rock python eats mammals and birds.
Lays up to 100 eggs about the size of a tennis ball in antbear (Aardvark) holes, hollow tree or similar suitable place. The female coils herself around the eggs to protect them.
The snake in this picture had eaten a full grown Impala ewe and, sadly, caught itself in an electric fence.

Over four metres in length, this was a large specimen.

When the python was skinned we found a full grown Impala ewe had just been swallowed.

The python kills its prey by coiling itself around the animal and constricting it. When the animal is dead the python swallows it normally head first. Having swallowed its prey, the snake will find an abandoned burrow or hollow tree in which to hide and digest it's meal.

A view of the python's mouth. A python's bite is not venomous but would be very painful.

:-O :-O :-O

What was that fence there for.....??????
Hard to believe - looks like there is plenty of space for the python to move under the fence; and if it was killed by accident why skin it?

As far as I know this incident happened on the `Silent Valley Game Ranch´ in South Africa.

I think there was enough space for the head of the python to pass underneath but she `forgot´that she was carrying an Impala in her belly which didn't fit.

Being a Game Ranch, I guess the fence is to keep their animals inside.