Python Eats Porcupine, Regrets It Later
It isn't unusual for pythons to eat porcupines, Fuller told Live Science in an email. In fact, many species of snakes eat porcupines and other horned or quilled animals, according to a study published in 2003 in the Phyllomedusa Journal of Herpetology. And while a 30-lb. meal might sound like too much to digest, it isn't if you're a python.
Rangers found the snake underneath a rocky ledge, where it had apparently fallen. On impact, the quills inside its engorged belly may have pierced the python's digestive tract, which probably killed the animal.
Rangers also took measurements of the snake's massive body, which measured 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) long. The snake's head features a dual set of lower jaws that move independently of one another, allowing the animal to open wide to swallow large prey.
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