Comments on: IT WAS AFTER ALL A GOVERNMENT MANUAL!

By: cherylp

cherylp — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 04:49:00 +0000

Oh, and btw? The snake died, too. It couldn’t swallow the man and couldn’t spit him out, either.

Too bad neither snake nor man can learn a salutory lesson–I guess that’s left for the living.

By: Charles Towne

Charles Towne — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Cherylp, DO NOT PANIC! Just run like the blazes!!!
I look forward to the trip when I can go to Venezuella into big snake country and videotape them in their own habitat. You take care now ya hear, Chaz
P.S. In a case like that a little gallows humor is appropriate.

By: cherylp

cherylp — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 01:46:00 +0000

You’re absolutely right. Since the whole thing was ridiculous, I tackled that load of tripe using its own groundrules.

Even using its own groundrules, that manual gets an F. If we apply the truth to it, as you just did, every step they noted after “If you are attacked by an anaconda” becomes moot, since you’ll be dead anyway.

I once saw a documentary about anacondas where they showed pictures of man who had been attacked in the jungle and crushed, just the way you described, and the anaconda tried to swallow him head-first, just as you mentioned. The snake could not get its mouth past the man’s shoulders. Even its famed unhinging jaw couldn’t quite manage that feat. Of course, the man was quite dead. He might even have panicked before his death, but we’ll never know. (Eww, gallows humor. Sorry.)

By: Charles Towne

Charles Towne — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:37:00 +0000

Please pardon the typos in the above comment. And here all of you folks thought that I was perfect.
Charles

By: Charles Towne

Charles Towne — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:33:00 +0000

Hey Cherylp, it is always good to hear from you.
When I read such tripe in a government manual, to my way of thinking everything they print becomes suspect.
Cherylp, the large constrictors, all constrictors invariably kill their prey before swallowing it. This is to prevent injury which could maim, even kill the snake.
In the anaconda's case it would grab you with its jaws, throw several loops of its body around you and as long as it deteced any movement it would constrict, not to crush, but to suffocate. Then, sure that you are dead meat, it would locate your head and began to engulf you, swallow you, head first.
The jaws, with innumerable curved and very sharp teeth, are designed more for seizing and holding than crushing.
Trying to swallow a human feet first is quite ludicrous considering that as it reached the cadaver's crotch or the arms, something, be it a leg or an arm would be sticking out at right angles creating an obstruction.
From long experiece snakes have been hardwired to swallow dead prey and invariably head first. You have a good day now ya hear,
Chaz

By: cherylp

cherylp — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:42:00 +0000

What, are they insane?!! The pounds per square inch pressure the snake’s jaws can exert would crush every bone in your feet and legs. If you could manage to withstand the pain long enough to cut off the snake’s head, how you going to walk out of the jungle for help? Talk about your uninformed!