Huge python found in Malaysia could be a world record; dies after laying egg

The reticulated python found at a construction site could be a world record. Photo: Courtesy of Malaysia Civil Defense Department

Construction workers building an overpass in Malaysia discovered a huge python of world-record proportions under a fallen tree on the island of Penang, The Guardian and BBC reported.
Herme Herisyam, operations chief for Penang’s Civil Defense Department, told The Guardian that emergency services were called in on Thursday to capture the reticulated python, a process that took 30 minutes.
Herisyam reported that the python weighed about 550 pounds and measured 26 feet, which is said to surpass the current world record.
Guinness World Records currently recognizes Medusa, a reticulated python living in Kansas City, Missouri, as the longest snake ever in captivity, at 25 feet, 2 inches. It is on display at the Edge of Hell Haunted House.
The Daily Mail reported that the Malaysian python is likely to take the title of world’s biggest snake. Certainly it’s a local record.
Herisyam told The Star Malaysia that it is the largest and longest python ever caught by the Civil Defense Department in Penang.

 

The huge python stretched 26 feet long. Photo: Courtesy of Malaysia Civil Defense Department

 

It takes quite a few people to hold up the huge python. Photo: Courtesy of Malaysia Civil Defense Department

Sadly, on Monday it was learned that the huge python had inexplicably died Sunday after laying an egg. The BBC reported that the python had been expected to be transferred to the government’s Department of Wildlife before it died.
An unidentified official said the python’s capture and the attention it received “likely compounded the stress of laying eggs.”
The reticulated python is found in Southeast Asia and is considered the world’s longest snake and longest reptile, ranging up to 21 feet. Reticulated pythons measuring more than 20 feet are said to be rare.
The Telegraph wrote that a python shot in 1912 was reportedly about 33 feet long. It also reported that scientists in Colombia in 2009 discovered fossils of a “monster” snake that reached 42 feet. The species — the largest snake ever to have lived on Earth — is named Titanoboa cerrejonensis and inhabited South American rainforests 60 million years ago.