I was left covered in blood after trying to film vicious 8ft PYTHON – snake handlers say I’m stupid for getting so close Katie Davis Published: 8:18, 15 Mar 2023 Updated: 9:43, 15 Mar 2023 ...

The python’s swollen heart is proportionately mighty. Its vigorous pumping sends oxygen coursing through the snake’s bloodstream, allowing it to up its metabolism by 44 times.

The snakes naturally enlarge their own hearts by some 40 percent in two to three days after eating one of their huge but rare meals. Between meals, python hearts and many other organs shrivel again.

The species isn’t considered threatened or protected in Indonesia, the main producer of blood python skins, and exports are governed by CITES, the convention on the international wildlife trade.

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'Blood ended up squirting 90 degrees out of my head,' Mr Herrington said in a post on a Cairns hiking Facebook page. Mr Herrington, a gardener who also owns a python, described the snake as ...

Its blood vessels fill with 52 times the usual level of triglycerides, substances found in fats and oils. Such levels would clog mammal hearts with fat, but the pythons seem immune.