Woman Swallowed by Python Was Worried About Wild Boars, Not Snakes

An Indonesian woman was worried about how wild boars were ruining her corn crop on Muna island in Indonesia – she should have been more worried about roaming pythons in the area. It sounds too amazing – and tragic – to believe, but this is the second time in a year that a person has been swallowed by a python in the area, reported The Washington Post. The first involved a man on a neighboring island. His body was “extracted from a 23-foot-long python, in an incident captured for a gruesome YouTube video,” the article stated.

“Wa Tiba, 54, left her home on Muna island to visit her cornfield Thursday night, according to the Jakarta Post. “The field was about a half mile from her house, surrounded by cliffs, caves and a certain number of reticulated pythons, the longest snakes in the world,” the Post article stated.

“Tiba had been concerned about wild boars, not so much snakes, as she walked through her cornfield that night, the Jakarta Post reported. The pigs had been raiding the crops lately, thus the inspection.”

A reticulated python secures its prey with a bite, then wraps its body around the victim, squeezing down until the victim cannot breathe, before consuming, according to the Associated Press.

Python reticulatus, found in Southeast Asia, are the world's longest snakes and longest reptiles, and among the three heaviest snakes.

When Tiba had not returned by the next morning, her sister reportedly went to the field to look for her.

“She found only Tiba's footprints, her flashlight, her machete and slippers,” the Washington Post article stated. “In the morning on Friday, about 100 people from the village of Persiapan Lawela combed the fields, Agence France-Presse reported.

“They found the snake a few dozen yards from Tiba's belongings. It was 23-feet long and so bloated it could barely move.”