BIG carpet snakes

[cris]

Someone gave me this article, to save you reading it it says that carpet pythons over 5.5m :shock: had been found near Kaimkillenbun(near bunya mountains in Qld).

While a small article in a paper is not 100% proof i think its highly possible its true. It comes from the Dalby Herald 13 july 2006.

 

[gronkus]

Scrubby?

 

[cris]

Scrubby?

no, definately not it is a similar latitude to brisbane no scrubbies this far south.

 

[hugsta]

I would imagine it is quite possible, I remember seeing one down a Roy Pails that was suposed to be 14 ft long. It was in its enclosure and certainly looked big enough. I have seen a few 10 footers and his certainly appeared much bigger. So 5.5m is a possability IMO.

 

[junglepython2]

Crikey that is over 18 foot

 

[Australis]

Maybe its a Monster intergrade like below :shock:

 

[AnteUp]

:shock: is about right!

 

[sevrum]

lets see some more monster carpet pics!

 

[Greebo]

I think that it is feasible a python could live long enough to reach that size beore the introduction of predators by man. ( I'm not saying the C word either)

 

[elapid68]

Maybe the person who measured it was a fisherman :lol:
People are nortorious for over estimating snake sizes. The amount of times I've been called out on snake jobs and the person is positive that they have a 6 foot Tiger snake and when I get there it's no more than 2 foot if it's lucky.

 

[Greebo]

If not a fisherman, then he must of been pretty cluey using metric way back when.

 

[krusty]

its like the fish that got away.............load of crap.

 

[Mase]

hahaha ! yeah its always the story of how big the one that got away was ay ?

 

[JandC_Reptiles]

May be possible, 4.3m coastals have been recorded.

I can't see why a 5 or 5.5m would never of existed.
May not be a regular occurance but not imposible imo so long as there was an abundance of food items & perfect weather conditions for them. Would be a very old snake though & chances are predators & natural selection would eliminate most animals from reaching these lengths & ages.

 

[hornet]

would a captive snake reach these sizes?? i have never heard of catpive carpets that size

 

[JandC_Reptiles]

No.
Captive snakes will not recieve the natural UV of wild specimens nor the photo-period or temps of wild specimens, they also won't recieve the varied diet of wild specimens. They also wont be subjected to extremes like wild specimens. Even in the wild there is a strong natural selection against animals reaching these lengths. I highly doubt there has been more than a handful of animals to hit over 4.2 meters.

 

[hornet]

so catpives wont reach large sizes like some of the gaint wild ones?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

That big intergrade was almost 12ft and over 22kg, a real monster. But the Mid North Coast property that it lives on apparently hosts an even bigger one in lantana thickets, and the guy who sees them was spot-on with his estimate of this snake's size, and there's no reason to doubt him. A spectacular animal, and really docile too!

J.

 

[cris]

The more i think about it the more i think it would be true.
Here are a few reasons i thought of -
- a larger snake in such an area has a better ability to survive as it can eat wallabies and roos which are a virtually unlimited food supply even in very tough times.
- sadly i would expect that the snake would have been killed before it was measured
- i have seen a number of carpets over 3.5m and heard of a 4.5m eating adult turkeys(this one also was killed)
- the story says the area is well known for having large carpet snakes, most ppl dont like snakes why make it up.
- i also suspect this snake was around some time ago when it had a better habitat and less human caused danger.
- most ppl dont care for the cause of herpetology and wouldnt bother reporting such things officially. I think the "official" max size is only 4m

 

[hornet]

so what would that huge intgrade be fed?