paulafulini

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Sucuri - how can a snake swallow an ox? To Nic

The two bigger snake's species of the world, Sucuri (or Anaconda) and Píton were already seen eating not exactly oxes, but calves.
Deers, "antas", antelopes, alligators and "capivaras" are the other big size victims who can also be attached by a Sucuri (found in Amazônia - Brasil) or by a Píton snake (found in Asia), which reach around 9 to 10 meters of lenght.
To eat a calf, these snakes have a hard work. They need to sufocate the calf until death and use lots of "anatomical strategies" to swallow such a big animal.
Depending on the size of the victim, the snake can stay weeks without eating. Sometimes, it can even die due to the victim's size.
1) The Sucuri is a non-poisonous, half-aquatic snake and usually hunts near streams, rivers & lakes. It stays watching & take any opportunity when an animal - as an example, a calf - comes to drink water. The attack starts with a quick jump on the victim to penetrate its teeth in the superior part of the victim's body.
2) To have a support, it keeps the bitten firmly while rolling itself up the calf. The pressure is so strong that not allows the respiratory and cardiac movements of the victim, killing it. To kill a calf, a Sucuri normally has to suffocate it for more than half hour.
3) When the victim stop moving & its dead, the Sucuri starts to eat it. As it can't see very well, it uses its snout and tongue sensitivity to find the victim's head, which is the first victim's part to be swallowed.
4) To swallow such a big animal, the Sucuri uses the mouth bone's movements. It has a bipartite jaw, which opens in horizontal direction. A bone called "square" extends the vertical opening, as it deslocates the connection between the jaw and superior jawbone.
5) The Sucuri mouth uses other strategies. Its superior jawbone is divided in 2 parts, which move alternatingly to front & back. This movements pushes the victim inside the snake's body slowly.
6) The skin and organs such as the esophagus & stomack expand easily, allowing the snake to swallow big victims - the diameter, of around 30 cm, expands around 3 times its normal size! Inside the snake, the "food" is pushed by the muscles to cross the esophagus, that has 2 meters inside a 9 meters snake.
7) Inside its stomack - that measures 1,5 meters when empty, the calf is disintegrated with powerful digestive enzymes. It's not true that the Sucuri vomits the food to eat it again (this is what cows do). The digestion of a big victim can take weeks, while the snakes rest.
8) Around 1 month after killing the calf, the Sucuri starts to defecate the calf's rests. The first shit, a compact mass, dark & almost not smelly, is full of tooth, fur, hoof and it's around 1/3 of the victims weight.

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