Constrictors

Canadian Police in the province of New Brunswick have launched a criminal enquiry into how a 14ft African rock python escaped its enclosure and killed two young boys having a sleepover at a friend's house: Connor and Noah Barthe, aged six and four. They must have been asleep in each others arms for the snake to have constricted both of them simultaneously. This shocking case has made headlines round the world (CLICK) because most people don't realise that boys can be on a constrictor's menu. Take a close look at this graphic of two anaconda victims I combined from photos in 2008. The boy on the left shows the marks of an anaconda bite on his chest. The bite may look small, but constrictors can dislocate their jaws to swallow prey much bigger than their heads. This boy was lucky. His father heard his screams and killed the snake. The other boy in the picture was dead when hunters cut open the anaconda which had swallowed him.