A woman in Indonesia’s Jambi province has been killed and swallowed whole by a python, according to local reports.
Jahrah, a rubber tapper reportedly in her fifties, was on her way to work on a rubber plantation Sunday morning.
She was reported missing after not returning that night, and search groups were sent out to find her. A day later, villagers found a python with what appeared to be a large stomach.
The locals later killed the snake and found her body inside.
“The victim was found in the stomach of the snake,” Betara Jambi Police Chief AKPS Harefa told local media, adding that her body appeared largely intact when it was found.
He said the victim’s husband found some of her clothes and tools that she had used at the rubber plantation Sunday evening, prompting him to initiate a search.
After the snake – which was at least 5 meters long – was spotted Monday, villagers caught and killed it to verify the victim’s identity.
“After they cut open the abdomen, they discovered it was Jahrah,” Harefa told CNN Indonesiaisa.
While such incidents are rare, this isn’t the first time someone has been killed and eaten by a python in Indonesia. Two similar deaths were reported in the country between 2017 and 2018.
Pythons swallow their food whole. Their jaws are connected by very flexible ligaments, so they can stretch around large prey.
An expert had previously told the BBC that pythons usually eat rats and other animals, “but once they reach a certain size it’s almost like they don’t bother with rats anymore because the calories aren’t worth it”.
“Essentially, they can grow to the size of their prey,” said Mary-Ruth Low, conservation and research officer for Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
That could be animals as big as pigs or even cows.
