if you slip a rat's face and hide, Hannibal Lecter–style, over the snout of a non-favored prey item, a python will try to swallow it. {University of Alabama snake digestion expert Stephen Secor did this some years back to reenact a scene for National Geographic television. "Worked like a charm," he told me. "I can get a python to eat a beer bottle if I put a rat head on it."} For
In "Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal," Mary Roach explores the fascinating world of digestion, highlighting the intriguing behaviors of various animals. One notable experiment by Stephen Secor, a snake digestion expert from the University of Alabama, illustrates how a python can be tricked into swallowing an object by disguising it. By covering an inedible item, like a beer bottle, with a rat's face, Secor demonstrated that pythons will attempt to consume it as if it were a real prey item. This clever tactic shows the instinctual nature of these snakes.
Secor's experiment serves as a vivid example of the complexities and oddities of animal behavior related to feeding and digestion. It emphasizes the way that visual cues significantly influence feeding responses in snakes. Roach's storytelling effectively uncovers the quirky aspects of our digestive systems and those of other creatures, reminding readers of the wonder present in the life processes that often go unnoticed. Through such examples, she invites a deeper appreciation of the biology behind the act of eating.
