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A year after two bodies were discovered locked in gruesome embrace deep in the marsh, a television documentary attempts to solve a mystery since burned into Everglades lore. Did a giant python really explode after swallowing an alligator? And what ate the snake's head? The National Geographic Explorer show examines what happened last September when a 13-foot Burmese python ate a six-foot gator in Everglades National Park. The extraordinary encounter was captured in a memorable, macabre photo that captivated the public and experts alike and -- for a week, at least -- made ''alligator-python'' among the most Googled phrases on...

foot amethystine python in a cage in my house. He was as big around as three or four garden hoses. One day, I stuck my hand into his cage to retrieve a rat he'd dropped, and, seeing movement near his prey, he nailed my forearm. I'm a hockey player and I consider myself fairly quick, but the strike was lightning fast. He dug in and I started bleeding. Was it painful? Well, he has about eighty needlelike teeth, and he left a U shape on my arm. So I'd say yes.

KETCHUM, Idaho - It took surgery to save a 12-foot Burmese python after it swallowed an entire queen-size electric blanket — with the electrical cord and control box. The blanket must have gotten tangled up in the snake's rabbit dinner, owner Karl Beznoska said. He said he kept the blanket in the 60-pound reptile's cage for warmth.

The Monty Python Abusive Voice Keychain. This is Holy Grail style, so the 17 sayings included in this…ahem…elegant little device might not be suitable for granny. OK? £8.99 from next month.From Play.com: Abusive sayings include: Button your lip, you ratbag! Come on you worm...you miserable little man. Come at me then...come on, do your worst, you worm. Death awaits you all! With nasty, big, pointy teeth. Don't come here with that posh talk you nasty stuck-up twit! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! I wave my private parts at your aunties. What is it...

NEW YORK -- A seven-foot-long python caused a scare in Lindenhurst, where she almost ate a duck in Firemen's Park. Then the huge snake put quite a fight while resisting capture at the hands of the Suffolk County police. Officials at the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said the young female python, about two to four years old, was resting comfortably Thursday at an undisclosed location. The 80-pound snake will be evaluated this week by a herpetologist and will likely be adopted by a licensed, out-of-state wildlife rehabilitator. The Burmese snake -- which normally makes...

A 13-foot Burmese python is headed to the Florida Everglades, except this one's every move will now be tracked. To better understand the presence of pythons in the Everglades, scientists at Davidson College in North Carolina inserted a tracking device inside the animal. Everglades Park research technicians will follow the snake's movement and study how the reptile adapts to its new environment. Pythons, elusive creatures which are difficult to find and capture, are rapidly becoming the new predators of the swamp. Just last year, a 13-foot python was found with a six-foot alligator halfway down its body. So far, scientists...

MIAMI — Once again, a python has been done in by its dinner. After one python exploded after trying to eat an alligator, a 10-foot African rock python was apparently trapped by the turkey it ate at a nursery. The snake couldn’t slither back through a fence to digest the bird. Nursery owner Felix Azquz, 77, noticed one turkey was missing early Monday. Then he saw the bulging snake. “It scared me,” Azquz said. “I ran outside to call the police.” The snake will be taken to a zoo, said Capt. Al Cruz of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit....

Miami Gardens, Florida - Elidia Rodriguez of Miami Gardens had been looking for her year-old Siamese cat for two days when her son pointed out the bulging Burmese python slithering in her backyard. Experts say that bulge in the 12-foot snake is probably the missing 15-pound cat. Rodriguez got the cat last year as a post-hurricane gift. She named the cat Frances, after the storm. The snake was spotted in Rodriguez's backyard yesterday. Experts with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue antivenin unit says Frances wouldn't have stood a chance against the larger predator. The snake was captured and taken to the...

A python's eyes were apparently bigger than its stomach. Scientists in Florida are puzzling over a Burmese python that scarfed down a six-foot alligator before its stomach ruptured. They found the carcasses in an isolated part of Florida's Everglades National Park. Photos show the gator's hind legs and tail sticking out of the 13-foot snake's ruptured gut. The Miami Herald reported that scientists can't figure out how the snake got the critter down. The snake's head is also missing. Experts say the clash is interesting, but it also shows the exotic snakes are competing with gators to top the food...

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) - The new residents of a Sedalia duplex were surprised to learn a 4-foot-6-inch constrictor didn't move out when the old residents left. The family made the discovery Sunday when the ball python slithered out from under the dishwasher. The snakes like warm, humid air, making the dishwasher a perfect place to hide. Stefanie Leafty had just told her two children - ages 5 and 3 - to get ready for bed when she saw something on the floor underneath the dishwasher. "I thought it was a toy, and I was going to pick it up," she...

Python beheaded Sandnes woman Anne-Grethe Lagerren got the shock of her life when she found what was apparently a king python under her sofa. The woman was doing her Thursday evening vacuuming when she saw a snake's tail sticking out from under her living room sofa. "I screamed and ran into the kitchen but my husband said I should calm down. Easier said than done, I am still shaken," Lagergren told newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad. Her husband Leif tried to get the snake out with a broom but decided it was wiser to call police. "I couldn't believe my eyes, it...

And now for something completely familiar. More than 35 years on from their first appearance, prepare for a fresh outbreak of Monty Python mania. Who would have thought the old boys had so much blood in them? The biggest buzz on Broadway this spring is flying around Eric Idle’s new musical based, loosely, on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Early indications are that Spamalot will indeed be the biggest hit of the year. Variety reported that the show, which officially opens on March 17 at the Shubert Theater, grossed more than $700,000 in its first seven New York previews...

Parrot paranoia betrays burglars The parrot's ability to talk made the burglars fearful A gang of thieves who burgled a house were swiftly caught by police when they returned for the family's pet parrot. The three burglars had made a clean getaway when they began to worry that the parrot might give them away after overhearing one of their nicknames. They returned to the house, in Memphis, Tennessee, US, but were spotted by police as they loaded Marshmallow, a green six-year-old parrot, into a car. The gang were caught after crashing, but the parrot flew away and escaped. Police...

October 5 Today is the Anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus! The Flying Circus debuted this day, 35 years ago, on television at 10:50 PM on BBC-1. The world was never the same. (October 5, 1969)

This is just a test, sorry to bother everyone.

Man Finds Ball Python Under Seat Of Rental Car POSTED: 7:40 am EDT June 29, 2004 MADISON, Wis. -- A motorist found a slithery surprise not covered in his rental car agreement when a ball python stuck its head out from between his legs. "He was completely in shock," said Officer Laura Walker. "I mean he said he was lucky he didn't crash the car." When Walker and animal control officer Tim Frank arrived to help Sunday, the 2 1/2-foot constrictor snake was coiled around the seat's base, Walker said. With some effort, Frank removed the black and gold snake...

Python Tries to Eat Boston Owner BOSTON - Police rescued a Boston woman from the jaws of her 7-foot Burmese python after the snake clamped onto her arm and started squeezing. Wanda Nunes, 43, told the Boston Herald that her python Moma went for her arm shortly before she planned to feed her two rats Saturday morning. "She must have smelled the rats because she reached back and lunged for my arm," Nunes said. "Before I knew it, she was all wrapped around me. ... Every time I tried to pry her off or move, she just got tighter around...

Worldwide Open Auditions for Young Monty Pythons 2/16/04 6:37:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: Entertainment Desk Contact: Tex Wall of Hippofilms, 310-445-9157; e-mail: pubdept@ginandtonicmovie.com LOS ANGELES, Feb. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Hippofilms, a Los Angeles-based film production company, has announced a worldwide casting call for the roles of the young members of Monty Python, the famed British comedy troupe. The first open audition is scheduled in Hollywood, Calif., on March 20, 2004. It will be supervised by Hippofilms' president, David Eric Brenner. Subsequent auditions, in New York, London and Tokyo will be announced in the near future. Hippofilms will work closely...

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 --...