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Man-Eating Snakes I

Not for the Squeamish – Some of the Pictures are Very Graphic!

Man-Eating Snakes II

Man-Eating Crocodilians

Large constrictors have killed people on rare occasions. The details of the deaths generally remain unknown. After all, the only witnesses are the victim and the snake. Ramona and Desmond Morris recount one exception to this in their book, Men and Snakes (1965, p. 116). A large python encountered a passed-out drunk and began to eat his left leg. It got as far as his torso and then simply stopped. When he woke up in the morning, he called for help and the snake was removed from his leg. Unfortunately, the leg was already partially digested and had to be amputated. Anything’s possible, but most herpetologists discount these sorts of stories as tall tales.

About eight more or less confirmed cases of death by constrictor have occurred in North America in the past twenty or so years. Philippe de Vosjoli (1993) reviews the potential danger of and precautions to be taken with large boas and pythons in The Vivarium 4(4). Reticulated, Burmese, and African rock pythons primarily are responsible for human deaths from constrictors. An unconfirmed case involving a green anaconda also exists.

An escaped 8-foot python smothered a seven-month old girl in her crib in Dallas, Texas in November 1980.

McCarty et al. (1989) reviewed this 1982 death in The Journal of Forensic Science 34(1):

A 21-month-old male was found dead in his crib. An escaped pet python snake (Python reticulatus) was found near the child on a cribside shelf. Autopsy findings included petechiae associated with asphyxial death plus puncture wounds consistent with the reptile's teeth. This report details this 1982 death of a child in Reno, Nevada, and includes illustration of the reptile's bite marks plus description of snake jaw mechanics in swallowing.

An unidentified pet python “strangled” a twenty-eight year old man in Brampton, Ontario in 1992.

An 11-foot pet Burmese python by the name of Sally killed a 15-year-old boy in his bed in Commerce City, Colorado in 1993. The snake bit the boy on the right foot and apparently suffocated him. The fact that the boy’s fingers also were punctured and bleeding suggests that he tried to remove the snake from his foot. The snake weighed much less than the boy (24 vs. 43 kg) and showed how strong these constrictors can be.

A man died in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in 1993 after a fight with his pet 16-foot reticulated python named Ebanezer. The man was not constricted but may have died of a heart attack. He suffered from hypertension. The man had snakebites on his arm and the snake had several knife wounds. A veterinarian treated the retic, which probably went to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

A 13-foot 20 kg Burmese python killed a 19-year-old man in The Bronx, New York in 1996. A neighbor found him in a hallway outside his apartment with the snake wrapped around him.

A 7 1/2-foot African rock python suffocated a 3-year-old boy in Centralia, Illinois in 1999. The boy had compression marks around his chest and bite marks on his neck and ears. No evidence of struggle was apparent. He was sleeping with an aunt and uncle near the snake’s aquarium at the time.

Just recently, a 10-foot Burmese python strangled an 8-year-old girl in Irwin, Pennsylvania in August 2001. She fell into a coma and was declared brain-dead two days later.

In none of the above cases did the snakes attempt to eat their victims. It can be easy to underestimate the strength of large constrictors. One fact that many snakeowners may not realize is that when a constricting snake compromises your blood circulation, any extra exertion such as simply standing up, can cause one to pass out. People may first pass out before they are actually killed by constriction. The pictures below are not that alarming, but do show how instances of large constrictors with obvious meals have been manipulated.

This scrub or amethystine python that ate an adult wallaby in Australia, sometimes turns up in the sensational press as a man-eater.

The following is an example of how a large constrictor with a big meal can be exploited by the tabloid press.

Picture published in Weekly World News on October 30, 1990. The story alleges that a 25-foot 380-pound anaconda ate a Japanese researcher in the Amazon. Since when do people wear pith helmets in the 90’s? The snake itself is a reticulated python from Southeast Asia.
The same picture was modified and run a second time in the Weekly World News on January 8, 1991. This time the snake is a serial baby-eater! It has also shrunk from a HUGE 25 to a giant 13 feet. At least the location makes sense. The reticulated python occurs throughout Southeast Asia.
Two photographs submitted by Mr. A.J. “Mac” McBride of Colchester, England, to The Vivarium. He states that they were sepia postcards that a friend of his father had obtained. The second photograph reveals that the retic had eaten a deer. All of these photos have been retouched to remove military insignia on the men’s clothes. It’s fairly well known that these were Japanese soldiers during World War II. For better reproductions of these four photographs, see The Vivarium (1991, Numbers 3(1), p. 5, and 3(5), p. 6).

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