Comments on: Penn Giant Snake Eats Kittens

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:22:46 +0000

Mnynames- Well, that is a good thing. Keep throwing them out there. I love hearing everyone’s theories and I wasn’t trying to dismiss what you said, just illustrating the unlikliness of it. Nothing wrong with throwing these things out for discussion!

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:30:35 +0000

Well, like any good Fortean, I don’t necessarily believe the theories I express either, I was just throwing it out there for discussion…

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:46:56 +0000

Mnynames- I have never heard of a snakes popping off the head of its prey like that, and I have owned boas and a Burmese python. Even when fed prey much smaller than themselves, I have never seen this happen, not even a popped out eye much less the whole head. Also, remember that the snake does not actually crush its prey, but rather squeezes it hard enough to suffocate it, basically keeping the animal from inhaling. It would take a pretty large amount of crushing force to pop a kitten’s head off and this is just not how the snakes kill their prey. I am skeptical of that theory.

By: Mnynames

Mnynames — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 06:15:24 +0000

OK, not that I buy the kitten-eating python theory either, but, considering the size difference between the 2 animals, might the snake have squeezed the kitten so tightly that his head popped off, and then he did what he usually does, and started by eating the head. Perhaps he was interrupted before he could continue, but returned later for the rest? Plausible anyway, if somewhat unlikely…

As a (Likely completely unrelated) side note, I had a cat named Minerva once who avidly hunted birds and voles, and always ate their heads off, leaving the bodies for us to find as presents.

By: asrai

asrai — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:05:05 +0000

Wow pythons in Penn uh? Interesting. It could have been pretty much anything that ate those kittens and cat but I’m guessing coyote. I have coyotes where I live and they are always leaving headless cats around. As for the python, I don’t think they have anything to do with the cats. they don’t have the ability to bite chunks off of animals they kill.

If they really have seen some snakes that are 45 feet long my guess is that they would be reticulated pythons. They are the longest pythons but not the heaviest (anaconda).

By: mrbf2007

mrbf2007 — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 08:20:55 +0000

Wow, I used to live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I had no idea this happened in that area. Amazing story. Thanks, Loren.

By: Remobec

Remobec — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:20:55 +0000

Don’t know if this is relevant, but when I was a kid my brother and I used to raise rabbits. We were in the San Fernando Valley (L.A.’s suburb). I’m not that old, so it wasn’t that many years ago–not back in the day when it was all fruit trees.

One day, apparently, we forgot to close one of the cage doors. When we came out in the morning there was a headless bunny in the yard. The rest of it was unmarked. It was a rather young bunny–maybe a couple weeks old, so it didn’t have a lot of defenses. We have rattlers and other snakes in the area, but I’ve never seen or heard any in my neighborhood. Our yard was maybe 1/8 or 1/4 of an acre–not terribly big. All fenced in by brick walls. We have dogs so cats aren’t seen too often in our yard, and I think at that time they were very rare in the neighborhood.

Anyway, I always found it so odd that just its head would be eaten. But the most logical answer would be a cat. (Our own dogs were inside at night… even if they had been let out, they would not have eaten a rabbit.)

I would guess that the culprit in the Pennsylvania case was a coyote or mountain lion.

By: Gihdora

Gihdora — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 00:56:20 +0000

Temperatures limit the spread of most large snakes in the US, and most think that any freeze would kill off species such as Burmese Pythons, though a few people high up in the Python study in Florida/Everglades National park seem to think that once they “spread out” Pythons will have a range similar to the American Alligator… I guess time will tell.

By: SharkFisher

SharkFisher — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 23:36:45 +0000

The proximity of the headless cat and kitten disappearances may just be coincidence, but this is pretty cool about two different snakes in the area. Apparently there is a good sized population in the Florida Everglades, why not the rest of the U.S.?

Not sure how cryptid this is though.

By: Gihdora

Gihdora — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:23:04 +0000

Yeah, largest US recognised US snake is the eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon corais couperi) the biggest ever found has been 9 ft-ish. 8 ft is a huge indigo.