Indonesian python swallowed palm oil farmer: Large reptile cut open to free lifeless body

By Mharia Emmareen / Mar 29, 2017 11:23 AM EDT
(Photo : Wikimedia Commons/Gunawan Kartapranata)

An Indonesian farmer did not expect that his fate will be in the stomach of an Indonesian reticulated python. Villagers heard cries the night before the victim was found lifeless inside the large reptile's body.

The 25-year-old Akbar Salubiro went out to harvest some palm oil on Sunday in the remote village of the Sulawesi Island in Indonesia. That night, the farmer did not go home prompting neighbors to look for him. They discovered a large Indonesian python stretched out in his back garden. The people are dreaded that he became a victim, strangled to death and then swallowed, Mail Online reported.

True to friends and relatives' fear, Akbar Salubiro dies of strangulation as the giant Indonesian python squeezed him to death. The serpent's body was sliced open by a local using an 18-inch long hunting knife to free his dead body.

According to the village secretary, Salubiro Junaidi stated, ''People had heard cries from the palm grove the night before Akbar was found in the snake's stomach. When the snake was captured, the boots Akbar was wearing were clearly visible in the stomach of the snake.''

A police spokesperson in the West Sulawesi province informed BBC that villagers communicated with police about Akbar Salubiro's disappearance. The police searched the area and found the hardly-moving Indonesian python close to the family's own palm plantation.

It was reported that Indonesian python of this size which is about 23 feet long are very formidable. Due to its massive size, the Indonesian python can crush its prey to death while wrapping itself tightly to its poor victim. Since pythons do not chew its food, it swallows them whole without any problem unless the prey is a big one.

Indonesia's Brawijaya University snake expert, Nia Kumiawan stated that pythons such as the Indonesian python which is relatively sensitive to noise, vibrations as well as the heat emitted by lamps, thus, avoiding places where there are humans. However, these slithering reptiles memorize its hunting grounds and will come back to hunt for prey.

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