Free Republic

KENDAL, Indonesia (Reuters) - It's still a big snake, just not a record-breaker. When a recreation park in Indonesia put a huge reticulated python on show last week, keepers insisted to reporters it was 49 feet long. That made it the longest ever caught. But amid growing skepticism of the claim, a photographer working for Reuters returned to the Curugsewu park in the small central Java town of Kendal Wednesday with a measuring tape. The snake's true length -- around 21 feet "I have no idea why the snake has shrunk," said one keeper when asked about the discrepancy, as...

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Indonesian villagers claim to have captured a python that is almost 49 feet long and weighs nearly 990 pounds, a local official said. If confirmed, it would be the largest snake ever kept in captivity. Hundreds of people have flocked to see the snake at a primitive zoo in Curugsewu village on the country's main island of Java. Local government official Rachmat said the reticulated python measured 48 feet 8 inches and weighed in at 983 pounds. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the longest ever captured snake to be 32 feet. The heaviest --...