Python dies after a spiky meal of porcupine

DURBAN: An African rock python has bitten off more than it could swallow safely – perishing at the weekend with its innards punctured by dozens of needle-sharp quills from the 13.8kg porcupine it ate several days earlier.

The python was in the news last week when a mountain biker photographed the bloated, 3.9m snake next to a cycle track at Lake Eland Game Reserve near Port Shepstone.

At the weekend, however, reserve managers found the python lying dead beneath a rocky ledge where it had been attempting to digest its meal.

General manager Jennifer Fuller said the exact reasons for the snake’s death were not clear, thought it was apparent that several porcupine quills were lodged inside the digestive tract.

“It had fallen off the rocky ledge. We don’t know if it died beforehand, or whether the fall drove some of the quills into its digestive tract.”

Surprisingly, snake expert Johan Marais said pythons were known to eat porcupines and other animals with sharp horns.

This is because they use very strong gastric acids which are essential for digestion.

“In cases where they are disturbed by people after a big meal, they usually regurgitate their meal as they move with difficulty – and regurgitating a porcupine is obviously problematic with the sharp quills,” said the author of