Talk:Reticulated python

Does this belong?

If a person is ever attacked there are a few easy things that you can do to ward off the snake. The first one is to get alcohol and pour it over the wound and into the snakes mouth, causing it to release almost immediately. The next thing you can do is get warm to hot water and pour it over the snake and this should also make it let go almost immediately. The final thing to do only works on the family Boidae, take the tail about 4-5 inches up and bend it backwards, causing it to let go.

I removed the above text from the article. It is very interesting and probably true but it is hard to verify. Furthermore, is there a liability issue involved? Please advise. Comatose51 01:22, 24 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

No liability issue - every single page of Wikipedia has a link to Wikipedia:General_disclaimer at the bottom. True and/or verifiable? I don't know. I think you did the right thing to move it here. FreplySpang (talk) 01:27, 24 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't agree with removing this section and merely discarding it. I think it should be investigated and if found correct, returned. My reason is that if someone is bitten by a pet snake (or in some circumstances a wild one -- especially when snake-catching) and does not know these methods beforehand, they are liable to panic and, despite preferring not to, use brute force against the animal injuring it, and probably themselves, unnecessarily. If the methods do work, they are easy to learn, prepare for, and use.

As an example of what I mean see the video at

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1864193870393450993&sourceid=searchfeed

This is a group of policemen who are trying to manhandle a large anaconda (not reticulated python) into a cage. One is badly bitten and another is bitten mildly. Had they come pre-prepared with a bottle of alcohol (ethyl, hopefully rather than methyl, but possibly also isopropyl if it works) to deal with eventualities like this, the release of the man's arm would have been easier and the snake less beaten up. Throwing mud over it's eyes before picking it up, and keeping on applying additional mud to blind during the carrying, might have averted the bite in the first place and not harmed the animal.

Years ago when I lived in Singapore I saw preople next door to where I lived catch a twelve foot python in the park across the road -- I think they may thrive on the rats in the open storm drainage ditches there. To avoid being bitten, they held it with a noose on a stick, very heedless of its suffering, jerking it up in the air by its neck to show people who were curious, and eventually selling it in some sort of snake market where its bile or something was to be used as tonic. I would have felt better if they'd handled it by hand. If knowing the above information would have made them more willing to do this, then it should be in Wikipedia if valid. It was twenty years ago and I still feel awful for the snake.

Are there really fifteen times more reticulated pythons than people in Indonesia? This strains belief when the population is about 250 million... that's 3.7 billion pythons, or about 1,950 per square kilometer. Even with python farming and the relatively large amount of non-farmed land in the country outside Java, I doubt this. Assuming three years (?) to slaughter, we're talking about a billion python skins per year -- a couple of wallets for virtually every single man, woman, and child on earth! Can anyone cite a reasonable source? FurnaldHall 07:16, 2 February 2007 (UTC) FurnaldHall 07:17, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

'pet' retics

The relative merits of keeping a retic outside of a zoo are hotly debated as with any number of giant snakes.

A blanket statement that the 'best' pet for a first snake is specifically and always a Ball Python is a gross oversimplification. Individual snakes have individual temperaments. Ball pythons may well not be suitable for some people. Personally, I'd recommend a Columbian Red-Tailed Boa over a Ball Python due to a more 'cuddly' and affectionate temperament, though they get much larger and cost more to feed. Burmese pythons are very popular, though this is partly due to a misconception that they are the mildest-mannered of pythons -- something that is often true but untrue often enough to lead to the occassional disaster. Blood pythons are also sometimes kept for their temperament, though this widly fluctuates from blood python to blood python, and the most common reason for keeping a blood is the pretty ankh on the forehead.

However, there are also plenty of non-python, non-boids that would also make suitable pets. Western Hog-nosed snakes in particular often have mild dispositions when socialised, and as to the 'brag' factor, a hog-nosed owner can honestly state that they own a venomous snake (though the venom only has a mild anaesthetic effect and is injected by back-facing fangs inside the throat, which means one would have to shove a finger down its throat in order to get a numb finger). King snakes and black racers (both colubrids) have also been often found as good starter ophidians.

If more detailed advice as to the keeping of a retic as a pet or not is to be given, it might be pointed out both that retics who have grown over a certain size should certainly never be kept without special facilities (however a four-foot adolescent is no different than any other mean-tempered, moody snake -- many ball pythons come to mind), and that there is a smaller option, the Dwarf Retic, which has not been seen to ever get large enough to swallow its owner, unlike a egular retic. : 66.199.69.117

Herpetoculture vs. Herpetology

A number on interesting things have been done with reticulated pythons over the past couple of 10 years in the field of herpetoculture . A variety of new strains have developed through the selective breeding efforts of private breeders producing snakes for the pet trade.

It is unfortunate, however, that this article has more information about keeping reticulated pythons in captivity rather than it does about the animal in the wild. --Bezbaq 01:49, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Fatalities"

Reptile enthusiasts are quick to note, however, that there are far more human deaths each year caused by dogs than by large constrictors.

THe above is an absurd statement. Of course there are more deaths attributed to dogs than snakes: one could say there are more deaths per year because of dogs than of unicorns. I removed it.

Re: the above...

It has nothing to do with snakes, but by far the majority of human fatalities attributable to dogs are not from lethal attacks per se but from rabies contracted from dog bites in less developed countries (especially India and nearby countries) where for economic reasons, dogs are not widely vaccinated against the disease.

With regard to snakes, there are actually a fairly large number of human deaths each year from snake bite in the areas of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia with which I am familiar but these are almost invariably from venom, not constriction, coupled with local unavailability of antidotes. Going barefoot at night on rural paths and roads without a light is an important, but not the only, risk factor. These incidents are not rare, though many or most people survive a poisonous shake's bite. Just for a rough sense of frequency, my closest friend's grandfather died this way in one south Asian country, and my wife's close relative almost died from snakebite in South Korea a year or two ago (he was hiking).

Eating People

As a herpetologist myself, I have *never* seen a single, verifiable report of any snake eating a person, ever. Killing, yes, but not eating. Snakes simply can't distend their jaws far enough to get their mouth around human shoulders. Although it is possible that at some point, a small child has been eaten by a snake, I have removed that section from the article as this is a popular misconception I'd like to not see spread still further. If someone feels that this is important, factual information, please cite a reliable source. 69.92.141.242 02:41, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

In the edit that I add that, I also add a single source, located in the Sources section. You can view the entire edit here. Given that I actually do cite a source, I think it should go back. Wikibofh 03:32, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

I would prefer something more easily checked than just a single book that I don't have access to. Or failing that, how about a compromise where you actually quote a brief section of the book in question word for word? What I'd like to convey is that snakes eating people is by and large fiction, and not have the public walk away with the impression that large snakes regularly, or even rarely, eat people. If you track down one source in a book where they found an uncorroborated report in the 1800s where someone was supposedly eaten, I don't think that should be included. As I don't have access to the book in question, or know what exactly it says I have no way of knowing whether or not it's reliable, and given all other articles I've read about it previously, I'm much more inclined to believe it to be unreliable and / or verifiable.69.92.141.242 03:48, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

My recollection is that this was a paraphrase from the book. It said something like "One of a few snakes documented to eat people". I checked this book out from my library, so don't have it handy. If you would like verification I can check it out again, scan the page in and post an image of it. It would be a while before I got this done. The book seemed by a reputable author (here is a list of the books he's published). There are also some online sources that say the same thing. In a quick google search I even got some rather gruesome images. For something like this, I can't prove a negative. I think the preponderance of evidence would suggest it's true, but rare. Wikibofh 04:02, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

As far as those images you linked, they were debunked on snopes. [1] In my opinion, the evidence usually tends towards snakes not eating people, however, as people tend to believe that they do, such rumors are widely propagated. Although I don't deny that an exceptionally large Reticulated Python is physically capable of eating a human (and much smaller snakes are capable, physically of eating a child), in practice they don't. My belief is that at some point, someone somewhere has probably been eaten by a snake, however I've never seen what I would consider to be good, factual coverage of such an incident. Although there may be 'documented cases', again, I doubt whether the sources the author was citing were reliable.69.92.141.242 04:10, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

How about something like this for a comment:

"This species of snake is one of the few that have documented, but not verified, cases of eating people. Given the size it grows to, it is possible, although likely exceedingly rare."

Oh, and good job on the snopes reference. I was sceptical, but hey it's late and I get up early. :) Wikibofh 04:19, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

I would find that agreeable; I mostly wanted to convey that if it happens at all, it's highly unlikely, and mostly an urban legend. 69.92.141.242 04:24, 23 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I added that sentence in, with a minor adjustment on the wording. Thanks for coming by. I'm always up for reasonable compromise. :) Wikibofh 04:29, August 23, 2005 (UTC)

Python Eats Man!!

On February of 1998, Philippines, a "Mangyan" (native of Mindanao) was reported eaten by a reticulated phyton.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.68.65 (talk • contribs) 22:42, September 19, 2005 (UTC)

Source or citation? Wikibofh 00:03, 20 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

source: ABS-CBN News (Magandang Gabi Bayan)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.68.199 (talk • contribs) 17:05, September 21, 2005 (UTC)

A search of their website returns only one, non-relevant, hit for python, so it can't be verified. Do you know of anything that can be verified? Wikibofh 17:25, 21 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Which is longer?

The Green Anaconda article says that it grows up to 10 meters, but is the second longest species to the Reticulated Python, which - according to this article - only grows up to 9 meters. Now granted, my metric is a bit rusty, but if the Retic only grows to 9 meters, and the Green Anaconda grows to 10, wouldn't the anaconda be the largest?

Metric is longer in the western hemisphere. ;) I provided the source for the max length on the python, and it is out of the book I provided in sources. I suspect that is no corresponding reliable source for the anaconda and that should be changed. That article needs to be cleaned up by a snake person anyway, since it has a lot of unsourced speculation on max sizes. Wikibofh_(talk) 20:16, 4 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

A reticulated python was found in Thailand (cited article) that was forty nine feet long. This is the longest confirmed snake in the world at present.

No it was not, Your so called "Forty-nine foot snake" was actually just 24 feet long upon quick further investigation. you really should try to look for a reliable up to date source outside the article before you repeat what everyone else has been falling for. Were all so gullible to believe that a living species of snake could be 49.7 feet long (14.85 meters long). whoever wrote that is clearly a cryptozoologist. No snake today could get that big though two Paleocene species, Giagantophis garstini and Madtsoia could grow to be 60 feet long (18 meters long). But they died out a long time ago. Any claims of living snakes that large are duboius

--Jj. hoaakkey 00:45, 27 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Range

Can anybody add the range of the wild python to the article? Casual users will probably want to know where these pythons live. The article focuses too much on the aspect of petkeeping and warnings and not enough biological information. Thanks!--Chicbicyclist 21:04, 12 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is a good idea. A map would be ideal or a link to one since it transmits a lot of data in a single glance. FurnaldHall 07:21, 2 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]