# Snake eats whole sheep
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 6, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708 "2006-09-06T22:47:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/1 "2006-09-06T22:47:16Z")
[Link](http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20364454-5001021,00.html)
Yummy. Who’s for seconds?
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/2 "2006-09-06T22:52:40Z")
Actually, he ate two sheep! I think he already \*had \*seconds.
(The sheep was pregnant.)
“Firemen had no difficulty capturing the snake, according to a local newspaper.” 😃
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/3 "2006-09-06T22:58:01Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> “Firemen had no difficulty capturing the snake, according to a local newspaper.” 😃
I liked that quote too. I can just picture the cops rolling to bloated snake up a makeshift ramp into the back of a pickup truck.
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### Author:  [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/4 "2006-09-06T23:05:49Z")
Oh, great. Sheep in a snake.
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### Author:  [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/5 "2006-09-06T23:15:08Z")
> [@JThunder](#):
>
> Oh, great. Sheep in a snake.
Sounds a bit like one of those medieval dishes, doesn’t it, where they keep stuffing things: “an ostrich stuffet with 2 geese, ych stuffed with a pheasant, in turn stuffed with a quail, they in thair turne stuft with several larks, garnished with thyme and basil . . .”
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/6 "2006-09-06T23:29:08Z")
I call photoshop (or similar software).
It is just too coincidental that the image appears to display the _form_ of a sheep (complete with convenient patch of dark scales about where the sheep’s ear would be) when the act of constricting, then swallowing an animal generally results in a mass of crushed (and therefore shapeless) skeleton.
The open mouth would (apparently) be that of the snake (since the snake had already eaten–and most snakes attempt to swallow prey head first, the limbs fold back more easily that way), but there is nothing resembling a snake’s head at the back of the mouth (which looks remarkably like that of a sheep).
I am not claiming that no boa or python could kill and swallow a sheep, only that this photo appears to be a fraud.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/7 "2006-09-06T23:36:48Z")
That’s gonna go _right_ to its hips.
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### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/8 "2006-09-07T00:30:37Z")
> [@Python](#):
>
> Damn! I can’t believe I did it! I ate the whole damn thing! Who’s the snake? Huh? Who’s the snake? That’s right, bitch, I’m the snake! Don’t mess with the mighty Python, yo, 'cuz I’ll swallow your ass whole.
>
> Yeah.
>
> Wow. Man. I’m totally stuffed. Like, ate-the-whole-damn-buffet stuffed. What I really need right now is to slink off somewhere and just chill awhile. Find a nice rock and sun myself. Yeah. That’s what I’m gonna do, 'cos after all that work I needs me a break. Yeah. Let’s just do that.
>
> Off we go.
>
> …right about now…
>
> …heeeeere we go…
>
> …oooooof!
>
> …Hrrrrrrrrgh!
>
> …Hrmmmmmph!
>
> Uh … little help here.
>
> C’mon, help a reptile out.
>
> Hello? Anybody?
>
> Shit.
Meanwhile, in a pasture nearby…
> [@Sheep](#):
>
> Instant karma’s a bitch, yo…
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/9 "2006-09-07T00:38:13Z")
Does this make the snake a cottonmouth?
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### Author:  [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/10 "2006-09-07T00:42:33Z")
Eeeewe. That sheep shear got a nice obituary. Was that in the Woolengong News?
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/11 "2006-09-07T00:46:47Z")
> [@JThunder](#):
>
> Oh, great. Sheep in a snake.
Are you saying that you’ve had it with these motherfuckin sheep in this motherfuckin snake?
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/12 "2006-09-07T00:53:01Z")
Has anybody checked on **Hal Briston** to make sure he is OK? I was worried he was visiting the sheep at the time.
Ow! Stop that! You knew somebody was going to say it
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### Author:  [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/13 "2006-09-07T01:13:37Z")
[Cole Porter]
“I’ve got ewe / under my scales”
[/CP]
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### Author:  [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/14 "2006-09-07T01:22:12Z")
> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> I call photoshop (or similar software).
>
> It is just too coincidental that the image appears to display the _form_ of a sheep (complete with convenient patch of dark scales about where the sheep’s ear would be) when the act of constricting, then swallowing an animal generally results in a mass of crushed (and therefore shapeless) skeleton.
I have my doubts, too, but not because of the photo so much as that it’s unlikely that any snake, no matter how big, would be able to capture an animal that big on a road. Nor would it even be on a road, unless development had driven it there. It’s not like the road is the only warm place in a place like Malaysia.
Also, considering that the snake was supposedly apprehended very soon after it consumed the ewe, it would have vomited the thing upon being moved. Snakes vomit if you try to move them right after they eat something. They get car/sea-sick. While the article makes no mention of what happened after the snake was apprehended, the fact they it doesn’t makes it suspicious. How do they know that it was a ewe? If it had vomited its food, they would have mentioned that in the unusually short article.
Also, there’s only so much that a snake’s skin can stretch. It’s not like they’re made of some kind of miracle space-aged NASA fabric that can do wonders.
However, **tomndebb** , constrictors don’t crush their prey; they suffocate it by preventing it from inhaling, so right after consumption, there woundn’t be any crushed bones. No snake that I know of can crush bones. Their prey’s form gradually collaspes in the process of digestion, which takes hours.
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/15 "2006-09-07T01:48:13Z")
> [@Rick](#):
>
> Ow! Stop that! You knew somebody was going to say it
…and later than expected. My wife and I guessed it would take seven replies 'til someone make a comment.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/16 "2006-09-07T02:26:41Z")
> [@Hal Briston](#):
>
> …and later than expected. My wife and I guessed it would take seven replies 'til someone make a comment.
Bet she feels sheepish.
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### Author:  [@wheelie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheelie)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/17 "2006-09-07T04:16:45Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> Also, there’s only so much that a snake’s skin can stretch. It’s not like they’re made of some kind of miracle space-aged NASA fabric that can do wonders.
Remember what happened to the python that ate an alligator in Florida last year? [Link.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4313978.stm?ls)
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/18 "2006-09-07T08:52:15Z")
> [@guizot](#):
>
> Also, considering that the snake was supposedly apprehended very soon after it consumed the ewe, it would have vomited the thing upon being moved. Snakes vomit if you try to move them right after they eat something. They get car/sea-sick. While the article makes no mention of what happened after the snake was apprehended, the fact they it doesn’t makes it suspicious. How do they know that it was a ewe? If it had vomited its food, they would have mentioned that in the unusually short article.
Yeah, I think that anything which could transform a sheep into a yak would garner a lot of attention. Still, if it’s is true, I really feel baaad for the lamb, don’t ewe? I wonder if the snake rammed the sheep down it’s throat, or it took it’s lanolin sweet time to do it?
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### Author:  [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/19 "2006-09-07T09:17:03Z")
Here’s a another snake story that appears to be true and possibly even more bizarre.
[http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue\_date=07-19-2006&ID=2005111410](http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?issue_date=07-19-2006&ID=2005111410)
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### Author:  [@2lazy2pee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2lazy2pee)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snake-eats-whole-sheep/371708/20 "2006-09-07T10:36:34Z")
> [@wheelie](#):
>
> Remember what happened to the python that ate an alligator in Florida last year? [Link.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4313978.stm?ls)
I saw a TV documentary on this a couple of weeks ago, either on the National Geographic Channel or on Discovery. Scientists are now saying the snake did not burst open, but apparently was attacked by another alligator while it was feeding. They cite the snake’s missing head, and that the flesh of the snake looked chewed, not clawed, as if a gator bit off a chunk.
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