By the time they got to the scene, the python had swallowed about half of the deer, and it took about 30 more minutes for it to consume the other half, Bartoszek said. Had the deer still been alive, the scientists would have intervened. Instead, they got a front-row seat to the intricacies of the food chain. "For us biologists, this was the most intense thing we've ever seen on assignment," he said. "This was as primal as it gets." Burmese pythons can consume meals equivalent to 100% of their body mass,