# Has it ever been proven that a snake has ever ate a human? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331 "2017-05-11T04:42:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/1 "2017-05-11T04:42:00Z")
I’m watching a documentary on ancient snakes and my aunts spinning​ weekly world. News type of stories about pythons and such eating people Any truth to her yarns? ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/2 "2017-05-11T04:59:53Z")
Documented case (victim was grown male) [just a couple weeks ago](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4356866/Villagers-man-swallowed-inside-giant-python.html). ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/3 "2017-05-11T05:50:59Z")
I’ve never understood the insistence in some quarters that snakes **can’t** eat people. It’s been well-known for a long time that a large-enough snake can eat deer, which in certain ways are bigger than some people. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/4 "2017-05-11T14:02:24Z")
I’m guessing the OP doesn’t keep up with current events. Just happened recently and documented on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/5 "2017-05-11T16:14:09Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I’ve never understood the insistence in some quarters that snakes **can’t** eat people. It’s been well-known for a long time that a large-enough snake can eat deer, which in certain ways are bigger than some people. The problem is not so much the size as the shape. Snakes have to disengage their jaws to engulf large prey. They normally start from the head. In most animals the body tapers fairly smoothly from the head, so the snake can gradually expand its gape. But in humans the body becomes suddenly broader at the shoulders, and the snake can’t get its jaws past them. Big snakes can easily kill humans, they just have trouble eating them. A snake may get as far as the shoulders and then give up, disgorging the head. The recent video is the first clear documentation I have seen of a snake actually ingesting an adult human. Other supposed photos posted on the internet have been hoaxes. I’d be interested to know just how large the victim was. There are various reports of pythons consuming humans in Africa and Asia. However, many of the victims were women, adolescents, or children, and thus relatively small. They generally also lack supporting evidence such as photos. While big snakes are capable of consuming humans given the right circumstances, the number of such cases is extremely small. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/6 "2017-05-11T19:45:13Z")
[Another well-known case.](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8mE1T7nfCmQ/VfIKQQontdI/AAAAAAAAMH0/1V7czF28bnc/s1600/addams-stop-mumbling.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/7 "2018-06-16T21:44:17Z")
[And another one](https://nypost.com/2018/06/16/23-foot-long-python-devours-woman-in-indonesia/). ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2018, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/8 "2018-06-16T22:31:03Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The problem is not so much the size as the shape. Snakes have to disengage their jaws to engulf large prey. They normally start from the head. In most animals the body tapers fairly smoothly from the head, so the snake can gradually expand its gape. But in humans the body becomes suddenly broader at the shoulders, and the snake can’t get its jaws past them. Big snakes can easily kill humans, they just have trouble eating them. A snake may get as far as the shoulders and then give up, disgorging the head. > > The recent video is the first clear documentation I have seen of a snake actually ingesting an adult human. Other supposed photos posted on the internet have been hoaxes. I’d be interested to know just how large the victim was. > > There are various reports of pythons consuming humans in Africa and Asia. However, many of the victims were women, adolescents, or children, and thus relatively small. They generally also lack supporting evidence such as photos. > > While big snakes are capable of consuming humans given the right circumstances, the number of such cases is extremely small. I guess the snake world is growing some overachievers these days. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2018, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-it-ever-been-proven-that-a-snake-has-ever-ate-a-human/786331/9 "2018-06-17T08:02:51Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I guess the snake world is growing some overachievers these days. Both at about 23’, with relatively small victims. (And the dear they are reported to eat are small dear too.) I suspect that “size at which they start to eat humans” puts an upper limit on the size of snakes in the modern world.