When this Australian couple stepped out of their camper, they probably didn't expect to see a 17-foot python eating a kangaroo whole.
With specimens at over 20 feet and 200 pounds, the amethystine python is one of the most terrifying snakes in the world. Adults average around 15 feet long and use heat-sensing organs underneath their jaw to locate their mammalian prey by its body heat alone.
With this in mind, it’s only slightly less shocking and horrifying to learn that two campers in North Queensland, Australia witnessed a 17-foot amethystine python inhaling an entire kangaroo whole just feet from their camper. The python is able to choke down the kangaroo in a matter of minutes, widening and disjointing its jaw as the kangaroo gets squeezed further into the snake’s body.
“I was just glad it had already caught the roo,” Helen Smart, the woman who filmed the video of the snake, said. “We’ve got two little dogs and one of them could easily have been gulped down.”
At the end of the day though, it could have been much worse: the largest amethystine python ever found was a whopping 28 feet long — and amethystines and other pythons have been known to attack, kill, and digest humans.
If this snake story didn’t freak you out, head to Snake Island in Brazil.
