African Rock Python Devours 10 Year Old Boy

Sunday Telegraph ^ | Nov. 24, 2002 | Wire Report

[ewing]

A 6 meter African rock python swallowed a 10 year old boy near Durban, the first recorded 'man eating' incident for the species.

For three hours other children hid up mango trees near the township of Lamontville, too terrified to flee, as the snake first trapped the young boy and squeezed the life out of him before consuming him whole.

Police and snake expers found no trace of the child, or his clothing, except for a trail of flattened grass and a trail leading down to a nearby stream.

The incident last week prompted wide spread panic among the 50,000 residents of the township.

[Physicist]

No, they don't normally go after humans, but they have been known to do so.

So you're saying the article is wrong on that score?

[Physicist]

Big snakes are dangerous, to little humans

And they are, but a 10-year-old boy isn't that little. You'd think one of these would have snacked on a younger child by now, if they were inclined to eat people.

[mlmr]

Ten year olds are about 4 and a half feet tall on average. This python was about 20 feet of pure musle and probably two to three feet in diameter before dinner.

I am sure that pythons have been eating small humans since the beginning of time. We don't hear all the news, just the news that gets passed on.

This story reminds me of the fools who want to reintroduce the wolves to populated areas to keep a check on the burgoning deer populations. As if a 60 pound child waiting at a schoolbus stop would somehow be immune to a hungry wolf.

[Dimensio]

Cold, ugly, slimy...

Snakes aren't slimy. They're not particularly ugly either.

Something about this story seems...wrong. I'm not sure if it is the style of the writing or the alleged accounts of the witnesses or the fact that the boy is as yet unidentified, but something about it just seems off.

[ActionNewsBill]

You have no clue how you would react to a 20-foot snake,

Man, I'd freak out if I saw a snake that large outside of a zoo. I can look at them all day long when they're behind 1" of glass.

[KS3139]

Ok first off the kids were probable scared shitless and that does not make them ‘piss ants’ as you so kindly put it. I personally have seen grown men freeze when it comes to dealing with pythons. I’d like to see you try it. And second off throwing rocks at it wouldn’t do any good and neither would stabbing it...as for cutting it in half goodluck with that I hope you’re really damn fast, accurate and have an ax on ya. I work with snakes a lot studying to be a herpetologist, and I’ve only had to personally work with these monsterous snakes twice and it is reasonable through the eyes of a child how they would freeze like they did and if you think you’re children would have acted so differently put em up against a giant python and see how they react I highly doubt its any different. They should have gone for help yes but terror makes people not think, and they have to live with that for the rest of their lives so knock off the damn slander towards them. As for the boy R.I.P.