A hungry python was brave enough to try to eat a porcupine whole, but the consequences for its attempt were deadly.
According to reports, the African rock python, measuring in at 13 feet long, successfully swallowed a 30-pound porcupine whole, but workers at Lake Eland Game Reserve in South Africa found the snake dead at the bottom of a ledge. When they opened him up, they were shocked to see that dozens of porcupine quills had destroyed the snake’s insides, reports Mad World News.
“The exact reasons for the snake's death are not clear,” Jennifer Fuller, general manager at Lake Eland Game Reserve, said, reported the Daily Mail. “It is apparent that several porcupine quills were lodged inside the digestive tract. It had fallen off the rocky ledge. We don't know if it died beforehand or whether the fall drove some of the quills into its digestive tract.”
Reports note that porcupines are usually seen as “easy prey” by predators when in reality, their quills serve as a visual defense mechanism. Snakes use different senses to catch prey, so this python most likely wasn’t scared off by the sight of the porcupine’s deadly quills.
Photo Source: Eland Game Reserve via Mad World News