What Gorged Looks Like

In case you are wondering, this is what a gorged boa constrictor snake (Boa constrictor) looks like. That lump is a chicken swallowed whole. Boas are fairly large, heavy bodied snakes that occur through Mexico, Central, and South America and some islands. This snake shows the pattern and coloration typical of Belizean boas. They do well in a variety of habitats which makes them a fairly common snake in forest, farm or village. Boas are non-venomous and as the name implies, kill by constriction, mostly birds and small mammals. They also bear live young.

Apparently this one, in the medium size range at about 4-feet, was caught once before in Sylvester Village after having eaten someone's chicken. It was then released in the bush. According to our friend Alan, a couple of weeks passed and it showed up again, caught in the act. This time the chicken owners brought it to Gallon Jug for release. It will have to travel several miles to return to the scene of the crime in Sylvester Village. This snake is lucky it wasn't killed, either as a two time offender or mistaken for a venomous fer-de-lance as is too often the case. My thanks to Alan for sharing his pictures with us.

Newsflash! Alan reports "... the guys related a tale to me this morning . Apparently they heard some noise from behind the lumber shed and went to see what it was, a large boa had caught a fox and had wrapped around it to squeeze it to death, as they went to see closer, the snake started to swallow the fox head first, they watched how the snake unhinged its jaw and swallowed the fox piece by piece, one of the guys went to his house to get a video camera but by the time he returned the fox was in the snake stomach and the snake was squeezing its way under some lumber to wait out the digestion process..."