Jahrah, a rubber-tapper reportedly in her 50s, had made her way to work at a rubber plantation on Sunday morning.
She was reported missing after failing to return that night, and search parties sent out to find her. A day later villagers found a python with what appeared to be a large stomach. Locals later killed the snake and found her body inside.
Though such incidents are rare, this is not the first time someone in Indonesia has been killed and eaten by a python. Two similar deaths were reported in the country between 2017 and 2018.
Pythons swallow their food whole. Their jaws are connected by very flexible ligaments so they can stretch around large prey.
One expert had earlier told the BBC that pythons typically eat rats and other animals, “but once they reach a certain size it’s almost like they don’t bother with rats anymore because the calories are not worth it”. “In essence they can go as large as their prey goes,” said Mary-Ruth Low, conservation & research officer for Wildlife Reserves Singapore. That can include animals as large as pigs or even cows.
It sounds unlikely but similar incidents have been validated:
So … beware pythons …