# Swallowed Whole By a Snake? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2005, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362 "2005-02-16T15:52:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [February 17, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/21 "2005-02-17T01:28:56Z")
> [@Ellen Cherry](#): > > So we don’t really know. Seems possible, might be possible, lots of fakes. There would seem to be at least one reasonably authenticated case of a snake eating a nearly adult human, of a Malay boy of fourteen attacked and swallowed on the island of Salebabu in Indonesia. It is possible that this is the same case that **elbows** saw displayed in the museum in Indonesia. (Cited in _Living Reptiles of the World_, 1957) by Karl Schmidt and Robert Inger, two well known herpetologists. Although this reference does not provide a date, other sources indicate it may have happened in the 1920s.) Although this case did not involve an adult, I would think it would certainly be possible for a very large snake to consume a small woman. I attended a seminar here once by a researcher working on Anacondas in Amazonia. One of his field assistants, a young woman, was attacked by one during the course of the study, but fortunately was rescued by others. (On his chart of Anaconda prey species, he included a column labelled “field assistant.”) Anacondas certainly reach sufficient size to make it plausible that one could consume a small human. > [@](#): > > I did enjoy your story **elbows**. But, I don’t agree with what you say about the show, that the snake unsuccessfully tries to consume her. As I recall, they said that the snake DID consume her, and then regurgitates her after the drug vials are crushed, releasing the drug and presumably making the snake ill enough to throw her up. Snakes may regurgitate recent prey items if they are disturbed. However, if they were suggesting the drug vials may have been crushed due to constriction by the snake, that’s just nonsense, especially if they were inside the victim. There’s no way the snake would be able to transmit enough force through the body to crush a small glass vial. (What kind of drugs, anyway? Heroin would probably make the snake nod off, which it would do anyway after a large meal. On the other hand, a large python on coke would be pretty scary.) > [@](#): > > Which I find unlikely as well! It would be difficult enough for the snake to swallow a person. Would it throw her up easily? And right back on the chair where she was lying, too? The attack by the snake, swallowing, and regurgitation would all be very violent processes. I couldn’t envision a chair that wasn’t bolted down still being upright after all that, much less the woman winding up on top of it. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/22 "2005-02-17T01:38:17Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I was watching a show awhile back - and this could’ve been typical Discovery Channel glurge - but they brought up a very good point that I’ve always wondered about. They said that constrictor prey usually dies **much** faster than if it was simply deprived of oxygen, and hypothosized that they actually kill by squeezing so tight that the heart is unable to beat. They also did some impromptu tests that showed the snakes squeezing harder than previously thought. > > Take with salt. Ditto that; I had always been taught that constrictors merely ‘took up the slack’ when the victim exhaled, restricting the expansion of the ribcage and thus preventing inhalation, but I saw a recent documentary (can’t remember where, but I seem to recall that it wasn’t a particularly poor-quality one) that asserted that large constrictors _did_ actually crush their victims, even to the extent of breaking bones. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/23 "2005-02-17T02:15:04Z")
> [@Ellen Cherry](#): > > Grr. I think I’m turning against CSI. I turned against that show a LONG time ago with a cop shooting investigation that could have been solved in about 30 seconds, taking the whole friggin show. Major evidence against the cop was he had one less round in his magazine than would fit. Duh. Insert magazine, chamber round, VOILA! One less round in magazine. Happens every day. Cop said he never fired. SMELL THE WEAPON! It was a suicide. ---
**Author:** ![klintypooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3da27b/32.png) [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/24 "2005-02-17T02:55:27Z")
I remember a fellow named Guybrush Threepwood was once swallowed by a snake. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/25 "2017-03-29T16:20:36Z")
[Python Swallows Indonesian Man Whole, With Aftermath Caught on Video](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/world/asia/indonesia-python-salubiro-sulawesi.html?_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/26 "2017-03-29T22:28:36Z")
[url=]More information So far it’s been reported in National Geographic and the NYT. Pretty reliable sources, as far as I know. Meanwhile, off to cancel that trip to Indonesia. Instead, I’ll be curled up in the corner whimpering. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/27 "2017-03-30T00:59:33Z")
Nice zombie topic. When I was a kid we loved [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vl9Uz-rmIU) musical yarn. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/28 "2017-04-01T05:34:29Z")
Corrected [link](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/python-snake-swallows-man-whole-indonesia/). ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362/29 "2017-04-01T05:51:41Z")
My girlfriend swallows me whole. Imma marry that woman. 💗💗 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swallowed-whole-by-a-snake/290362.md?page=1)