Medusa, the world's largest captive snake

Adam Khor

She's a reticulated python, and measures 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, and weighs 300 lbs (136 kgs). She may not be the largest snake in the world but she seemingly is the largest kept in captivity. It takes no less than fifteen people to lift her completely off the ground.



If you're wondering why the keepers look like freaks, it's because the snake lives in a Haunted House attraction in Kansas, USA.



Look at the size of the head o-o I think the last time I saw a retic this size was in the last Harry Potter movie XD

Chancemarie

Ask the owner how he achieved that length and weight. I know for a fact he pumped it full of Steroids and growth hormones. The Python is only about 7 years old for pete sakes. It takes many more years than that to grow a python that large.

Kess73

If that snake is 25 feet long, then she would be amongst the longest extant snakes ever to be measured.

Nearly all reticulated pythons that had a length of over 23 feet advertised for them in the past somehow shrank when a measuring tape got near them.:D


Chancemarie's post catches the eye as well, because if that snake is really only 7 years old then it's growth rate would be off the charts without some kind of chemical help along the way.

Adam Khor

According to Guiness World Records. Check it out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2206693/The-worlds-longest-snake-living-captivity-weighs-300lbs-25ft-long-lives-haunted-house-Kansas.html?openGraphAuthor=%2Fhome%2Fsearch.html%3Fs%3D%26authornamef%3DKaty%2BDartford&videoPlayerURL=http%3A%2F%2Fc.brightcove.com%2Fservices%2Fviewer%2Ffederated_f9%3FisVid%3D1%26isUI%3D1%26publisherID%3D1418450360%26playerID%3D72484359001%26domain%3Dembed%26videoId%3D&hasBCVideo=true&BCVideoID=1854565598001

dodderangler

Chancemarie wrote: »

Ask the owner how he achieved that length and weight. I know for a fact he pumped it full of Steroids and growth hormones. The Python is only about 7 years old for pete sakes. It takes many more years than that to grow a python that large.

And you got that info from where?
Reticulated python is longest snake in world not largest tho but it's smaller cousin the burm can grow up to 7 foot in a year and so who is to say the longest snake cannot grow that length in 7 years.
As for pumpin is with steds and hormones is a ridiculous statement to make
Seeing is believing and I well believe this snake grew that length due to the species that it is
That's nature for you and records were made to be broken

Kess73

dodderangler wrote: »

And you got that info from where?
Reticulated python is longest snake in world not largest tho but it's smaller cousin the burm can grow up to 7 foot in a year and so who is to say the longest snake cannot grow that length in 7 years.
As for pumpin is with steds and hormones is a ridiculous statement to make
Seeing is believing and I well believe this snake grew that length due to the species that it is
That's nature for you and records were made to be broken

Python growth slows to a huge degree as they get older. A snake that was growing at a rate of 7 foot a year in it's first year may grow three foot in it's second year, a foot in it's third year and so on. And that sort of growth is generally reserved for pythons in captivity that are being very well fed.

25 foot in 7 years is an astonishing growth rate.


Fluffy, a 24 foot retic at the Columbus zoo, was hatched and brought up in captivity. It took 13 years of a rich diet for Fluffy to reach the 24 foot mark despite being 15 foot in length after 4 years. They simply do not continue to grow year on year at a very fast rate even on a rich diet.

Now there will always be the odd fluke that may grow at an abnormal rate, but a retic that hits 25 feet by the time it is 7 or 8 years old, even in captivity, is very unusual in growth terms to say the least. It suggests that the snake in question was a fluke in terms of growth rate or that it may have gotten some man made help along the way.

Adam Khor

Kess73 wrote: »

Python growth slows to a huge degree as they get older. A snake that was growing at a rate of 7 foot a year in it's first year may grow three foot in it's second year, a foot in it's third year and so on. And that sort of growth is generally reserved for pythons in captivity that are being very well fed.

25 foot in 7 years is an astonishing growth rate.


Fluffy, a 24 foot retic at the Columbus zoo, was hatched and brought up in captivity. It took 13 years of a rich diet for Fluffy to reach the 24 foot mark despite being 15 foot in length after 4 years. They simply do not continue to grow year on year at a very fast rate even on a rich diet.

Now there will always be the odd fluke that may grow at an abnormal rate, but a retic that hits 25 feet by the time it is 7 or 8 years old, even in captivity, is very unusual in growth terms to say the least. It suggests that the snake in question was a fluke in terms of growth rate or that it may have gotten some man made help along the way.

What about the genetic factor? Bob Clarke, Fluffy's original owner, said genes had a lot to do with the snake's size as did diet. Speaking of which, the diet they give Medusa seems more varied than that of your average zoo python.
They also feed her frequently which would have her grow faster and more continuously.

Kess73

Adam Khor wrote: »

What about the genetic factor? Bob Clarke, Fluffy's original owner, said genes had a lot to do with the snake's size as did diet. Speaking of which, the diet they give Medusa seems more varied than that of your average zoo python.
They also feed her frequently which would have her grow faster and more continuously.

Fluffy also got a varied diet that was of high quality and given that Bob Clarke is a herpetologist, I cannot think of a snake that would have been in better hands.

Fluffy had the best of food, no shortage of that food, no shortage of medication/supplements when needed, and had ideal temperatures all year round.

As a result the growth rate of Fluffy was seen as being well above the norm, and Fluffy was a snake that got that level of care right from hatching.

If anything Fluffy was a text book case of how large and quickly a retic can grow if everything in it's enviroment is perfect from the moment it hatches.

But despite Fluffy being regarded as a quick grower, and being regarded as having perfect conditions, it still took 13 years for Fluffy to reach the 24 foot mark, something that Medusa managed to do in close to half the time.

There have been a lot of really long and big retics in zoos and the like over the years, many of whom no doubt grew bigger than they would have in the wild, but what pretty much all the documented cases have in common, including fluffy, is very rapid growth for the first few years and then a much slower much more gradual growth over a much longer period of time before levelling out in the 20+ foot range.

Medusa seems to have bypassed this and just continued to grow at an accelerated rate after the inital burst that comes in the first two to three years.

The frequent feeding explanation does not convince me as Fluffy and most of the other mega sized retics were fed on a frequent basis also.

So it stands to reason that either Medusa got some help to keep her growth rate accelerated or she is some kind of genetic freak. If the latter then she should continue to grow for many more years and she should have at least 7 years of noticeable growth to come. We should in three or four years be looking at a 30 foot snake if her growth was not enhanced chemically.