In a spate of international wire storiesfiled towards the end of December, it was reported that villagers on the Indonesian island of Java had found the largest snake ever held in captivity, a 49-foot reticulated python weighing an estimated 992 pounds. By comparison, the standing Guinness world record holder, also a python reticulatus from Indonesia, measured a paltry 32 feet 9.5 inches from nose to tail when it was captured in 1912. Dubbed "Fragrant Flower" by locals, the unconfirmed 2003 upstart might have necessitated the rewriting of herpetological history but for the investigations of John Aglionby, a correspondent of the British daily The Guardian, who raced to the scene with tape measure in hand.
By Aglionby's own measurements, the behemoth came up "well short" of the dimensions originally given. "Indeed," he wrote in a story published last Monday, "'coming up well short' does not do justice to the disparity between the claimed length and the length I measured. If Fragrant ever extends to 14.85m [49 feet] long he will be the most mind-boggling animal on earth because I measured him at somewhere between 6.5 and 7m [between 21 and 23 feet]."
The python's handler at the central Java tourism park where it now resides — and where, by the way, business has increased 60 percent since word of the new attraction got out — attributed the disparity to the species' ability to stretch and contract, an explanation roundly rejected by experts. "Essentially, a python's body size is as unflexible as ours is," evolutionary biologist Richard Shine told Aglionby. "These giant pythons always shrink whenever a tape measure turns up." Full story w/photo.
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By Aglionby's own measurements, the behemoth came up "well short" of the dimensions originally given. "Indeed," he wrote in a story published last Monday, "'coming up well short' does not do justice to the disparity between the claimed length and the length I measured. If Fragrant ever extends to 14.85m [49 feet] long he will be the most mind-boggling animal on earth because I measured him at somewhere between 6.5 and 7m [between 21 and 23 feet]."
The python's handler at the central Java tourism park where it now resides — and where, by the way, business has increased 60 percent since word of the new attraction got out — attributed the disparity to the species' ability to stretch and contract, an explanation roundly rejected by experts. "Essentially, a python's body size is as unflexible as ours is," evolutionary biologist Richard Shine told Aglionby. "These giant pythons always shrink whenever a tape measure turns up." Full story w/photo.
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