Scientist gets inside a python to study its digestive system

Scientist has gone to an extent to actually discover the exact way a python digest.

A python normally fast for months before eating a meal. Once its decided to a have a meal, then it will see to that it has a good one.

The researchers, Henrik Lauridsen and Kasper Hansen, both from Aarhus University in Denmark, carried at a research on a python just an hour later  it ate a rat.

The researchers carried out a computer tomography or CT scan on the python on discussion.They also used a technique called magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the creature’s internal organs.

By using contrast agents, the scientists were able to highlight specific organs and make them appear in different colours.

A series of MRI images revealed the gradual disappearance of the rat’s body. At the same time, the snake’s intestine expanded, its gall bladder shrank and its heart increased in volume by 25%.

The researches explained that the increase in the size of the snake’s heart was probably associated with the energy it needed to digest its meal.

“It’s a sit and wait predator,” explained Mr Lauridsen. “It fasts for months and then eats a really large meal.

“It can eat the equivalent of up to 50% of its own bodyweight, and in order to get the energy out of the meal, it has to restart the intestinal system very fast.”