Woman goes to work, gets swallowed whole by 22-foot python

[iemanja]

When Jahrah, 54, left her home for work as a tree tapper on an Indonesian rubber plantation on Sunday morning, it was the last time her family would see her alive. When Jahrah failed to return home that afternoon, her husband sounded the alarm and went out to find her.

The first sign that something was wrong was his discovery of his missing wife’s sandals, jacket, headscarf and knife on the forest floor.

The second sign was a heavily bloated snake, encountered by a search party looking for Jahrah the following morning. . .

“The victim’s body was not destroyed when we found her inside the snake, meaning that she had only been recently swallowed whole,” the police said, after they found the reptile near the village of Betara in Indonesia’s Jambi province, located on Sumatra island.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/10/26/indonesia-python-snake-eats-woman/

[hlthe2b]

1. Incredible.

[GreenWave]

2. I have to call this one out.

Large constrictors are incapable of crushing our shoulder blades. The human would be stuck at this point. And the snake kas teeth that do not release so the prey stays stuck.

[iemanja]

3. So you don't think the snake could have swallowed her?

Surely humans and large mammals have been swallowed by snakes before?

[GreenWave]

5. This topic gets kicked around a bit.

A reticulated python could conceivably kill and swallow a pretty small adult with not wide shoulder blades. Almost for sure it would have to in feet first.

Regular sized people fear not. It cannot swallow you after it kills you.

Sorry I was snappy earlier.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Don't need to crush the shoulder blades.

The spine would snap at the shoulders and the the blades would be unstable cross-wise and would be free to twist sideways to go further into the snake.

It is logical. However, I'm wondering about your source of info? Personally, I have never been swallowed by a snake.

[GreenWave]

6. I recall a herpetologist explaining this

on one of those incredible science shows I watch. Sorry I do not have better intel.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Pics/vids, not of this incident but of python constrictors having eaten humans

https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+swallow+human&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjprtmo1_76AhWDrYkEHXLoD6gQ_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1552&bih=1247&dpr=0.7#imgrc=2OuUSBsTj_LZQM

[iemanja]

11. The article sites experts

Snake conservationist Nathan Rusli, director of the Indonesia Herpetofauna Foundation, suspects a reticulated python was likely responsible. The species is the only reptile living in the Sumatran province of Jambi that is large enough to have consumed an adult human, he told The Washington Post.

“They are constrictors, so what they do is coil their body around you. They will give you a hug of death. You breathe in and your body gets smaller, it tightens its grip, and you can’t breathe out,” Rusli explained. “The top and bottom jaw of a snake is connected by ligaments, it’s quite flexible. They can swallow prey larger than the size of their head.”

Confirmed reports like these are relatively rare, occurring around once a year.

“Most cases are cases of farmers working in rubber and cacao plantations in Sumatra and Sulawesi, most cases occurs at night,” Indonesian snake expert Djoko Iskandar, a professor at Bandung Institute of Technology, told The Post. Only extremely long reptiles are able to successfully hunt adult humans, with the smallest Indonesian python known to have been involved in a fatal encounter still measuring over 18 feet long, Iskandar said.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. I'm pretty sure the actual constriction takes place when you breathe out,

and then you can't breathe in again.

[underpants]

10. Not arguing (I have no clue) but later in the article

In 2017, a 25-year-old villager on the island of Sulawesi was discovered inside a 23-foot-long python, suspected of killing him. The following year, this time on Muna island, a 54-year-old woman checking on her corn crops was swallowed whole in an area of the country known for its population of reticulated pythons.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Ignorance asking:

Was the woman still alive?

[iemanja]

9. No

She died. I suppose she suffocated to death.

[MuseRider]

12. I used to work at our local zoo.

Back in the 70's there were rules and we respected each of our animals. Nothing we did back then would be done now. When I worked reptiles I had to walk around 2 of those monster snakes to clean out the area before exhibit opened. It never occurred to me that this could happen. The only alert switches we had were over the cobras and the Gaboon viper, not those big boys. We took those snakes outside for fresh air and a "walk". It took 5 of us to carry them out. I never once thought about getting eaten!!!

[iemanja]

13. OMG!

I could never had done that job. I'm terrified of snakes.