Python constricting mouse
The ball python (Python regius) is a native of Africa and non-venomous. Rather than biting its prey and injecting venom, the snake coils itself tightly around its victim, suffocating it until it is dead. Once it stops moving, the snake gets in position to swallow its kill whole.
Ball pythons are popular pets because they are the smallest of pythons, growing only up to 3 to 3.5 ft (males) or 4 to 4.5 ft (females). When scared or stressed, the pythons roll themselves around their head into a ball for protection, hence their name.
Considered fussy eaters, ball pythons can go for months without food, especially during the breeding season in winter. However, when ready to eat – usually small mammals like mice, rats and occasionally birds – the python has a sure-shot method that prey hardly escapes: spot, approach, corner, attack, constrict, swallow, rest. Ready to see this in pictures?
Ball python approaching
First, the approach. This image is especially amazing considering the angle at which it has been shot, enhancing the dramatic effect. Unaware, the mouse sits in one corner while the snake slithers closer…
Python cornering mouse
… The mouse got cornered at the edge of the rock.
Python constricting mouse
The python comes closer with lightning speed and before the otherwise agile mouse can run away, it is in the clutches of the python who has wound itself tightly around the mouse. It will slowly but steadily constrict its victim further, making sure it does not move any more before…
Snake swallowing mouse
… it starts swallowing the mouse whole, from head to tail. It is amazing how wide the python can open its fangs, thus allowing itself to slowly advance in the swallowing process. Before we can say “where…”
… the mouse has already been swallowed in one gulp as happened in this image. That’s not the snake’s tongue coming out of its mouth, by the way, but the mouse’s tail! Notice the bump inside the snake in the background of the picture? Yup, that’s the mouse. Still alive? Probably not.
If you can stomach it, here’s a video – not of the same mouse and python but it’s a pretty similar story and quite a long process once the initial constricting is over...
With special thanks to Alexander Shenkar for granting permission to use his images.