Longest Snake

bobbyb0y writes "Here's an article at BBC reporting what could be the longest snake ever caught. You can look at some of its pictures online. Currently on display at a zoo in Indonesia. Its a monster of a python weighing close to 450 kilos and ~15m long. Beat that anaconda. Seems it has developed a nice taste for dogs too!!"

Comments

ATTN: lady Slashdotters

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a snake in my trousers that takes issue with this story.

Send a snake to dispose of a snake.

[MrsPReDiToR]

"They said that the snake had only recently been put on public display and ate three or four dogs a month." Forget about feeding it for a month and it may just like a nice tasty morsel of Saddam. Seems like a fitting end for him, anyone want to suggest it to the Iraqi's?

Fear this

[squiggleslash]

Ok, huge, long, snakes and William Shatner producing another album, both in the same hour. Are you people trying to provoke all my phobias?

Scepticism

[n9hmg]

While I'm fully prepared to believe that such a snake exists, the submitted photos appear designed to prevent one from verifying the size. In one photo, I could see 20, possibly 30 feet (depending on the size of the people in the photo), with some unknown length off-camera. It's in a zoo! Have wait till it's out in the open, have the veterinarian sedate it, stretch it out, and park a jeep next to it. Barring sedation, a series of snaps taken as it crawls through an open area. These are like a "magician" holding up his hand with two ends of rope hanging from it and calling that proof that the whole rope is rejoined after cutting.
That said, I expect it's just incompetent journalism, and we'll see solid proof soon.

Incidentally, is anyone else getting sick of the "500 - internal server error" from /.?

Re:Scepticism

[RALE007]

If I remember correctly, it's a very bad idea to attempt to sedate a reptile. Determining proper dosage is near impossible for our sensitive cold blooded friends and the attempt would most likely result in the untimely death of the snake.

Forget verification... how to catch it?

[ignoringReality]

...it's probably so big from eating all the people that tried to catch it before... Some guy had to catch the thing... now assuming that it was only '20, possibly 30 feet' that's still a big freaking snake! You can't sing it to sleep; even if you do manage to sedate it with something imagine the _simple_ task of getting it into the back of a truck!

Reticulated Python

[sprzepiora]

These snake are the longest in the world, however the anaconda in known for its girth. BTW you do not want to get bitten by one of these guys, they have sharp nasty little teeth that leaves a distinct U shape of blood on your arm when they let go.

Re:News for nerds.

[mfarah]

Stuff that...matters?

Of course it does. This is gonna be a big point in favor for the Python-lovers against the Perl-afficionados: "The largest python ever weighed 447 kilograms - has there EVER been a perl weighing ever 4.47 kg? No? Of course not! Therefore, Python rules. Oh, and by the way, Python eats parrots for snacks!!!!".

Of course it's stuff that matters.

(we need to get out more)