Snake regurgitates hippo

This video appears to show a large snake regurgitating a small hippo that it was unable to digest. (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

[#1 posted by peterbruells, February 25, 2009 8:58 AM]

I was *almost* expecting the hippo to stand up, put on sun-glasses and asking all involved to never talk about this.

[#2 posted by Duffong, February 25, 2009 8:59 AM]

BB regurgitates this video from 2006

[#3 posted by tartar, February 25, 2009 9:03 AM]

I'm strangely affected by this video.

[#4 posted by jaypee, February 25, 2009 9:05 AM]

It's regurgitating its prey because those people kept fscking with it. Think about it, it's slow and sluggish with all that yummy food in it. As a defense measure, it pukes when harassed so it can escape if necessary.

[#5 posted by lectroid, February 25, 2009 9:06 AM]

Snake: oog. anyone got a mint?

[#6 posted by guy_jin, February 25, 2009 9:09 AM]

dammit, some of us are trying to eat here!

[#7 posted by Teller, February 25, 2009 9:10 AM]

Boalimia.

[#8 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 9:13 AM]

I doubt that is a hippo, it is probably an anaconda spitting up a Capibara (their normal food)

[#9 posted by IWood, February 25, 2009 9:14 AM]

Reminds me of a date I had last year. Had a great time, but in the end it's all about the chemistry, innit.

[#10 posted by ehkca, February 25, 2009 9:14 AM]

This is the chapter of The Little Prince Saint-Exupery didn't want you to see...

[#11 posted by pAULbOWEN, February 25, 2009 9:16 AM]

#4: that's what I thought, wouldn't do much for my digestion if someone poked me with an oar after a meal. Great video though.

[#12 posted by randalll, February 25, 2009 9:21 AM]

I think we need a snake-vomiting-a-unicorn chaser.

[#13 posted by David Pescovitz, February 25, 2009 9:21 AM]

DUFONG @2, It was new and interesting to me. And fortunately, whether something is new and interesting to me is the only filter I need to use when determining what to post.

[#14 posted by empirechick, February 25, 2009 9:26 AM]

#7 - Teller:

FTW!

[#15 posted by Esquilo, February 25, 2009 9:30 AM]

We don't actually have rhinos roaming free in Brazil, that's probably an Anta (Tapir) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapir .

[#16 posted by forzato, February 25, 2009 9:45 AM]

ok, I never want to see that again!

[#17 posted by Sick, February 25, 2009 9:49 AM]

It's Portugese and therefore probably Brazil.

That's no hippo.

It looks like an adult Capibara.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Capibara_1.jpg

Why do they keep poking the snake? I'd regurgitate my food of they would keep me. The snake probably hopes to escape by dropping the extra weight.

[#18 posted by Takuan, February 25, 2009 9:52 AM]

so an anaconda then?

[#19 posted by Bilsko, February 25, 2009 9:54 AM]

If the news announcer is to be believed, its happens in the interior of the State of São Paulo, in Brazil. The Hippo is likely an Anta or a really big Capivara

[#20 posted by The Lizardman, February 25, 2009 10:09 AM]

If only it had devoured one of those assholes poking it afterwards...

[#21 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 10:09 AM]

That anaconda don't want none, it ain't got buns, hun.

[#22 posted by Takuan, February 25, 2009 10:15 AM]

yeah, kind of wonder what they did with the snake afterwards. What's the local attitude? Do they value them or see them as meat and/or a threat to kids and livestock?

[#23 posted by Brainspore, February 25, 2009 10:20 AM]

Hungry, hungry... hippo?

[#24 posted by zio_donnie, February 25, 2009 10:27 AM]

could be the best inter-species BJ ever.

BTW i think possibly this takes place in a zoo or park and that they possibly force the snake to regurgitate a prey that could not digest in order to save it. the snake that exploded by eating an aligator comes to mind.

the people in the video don't look like a random angry mob what with that long stick with the striped pad and all. could be wrong tho'

[#25 posted by napstimpy, February 25, 2009 10:33 AM]

Golly. Makes me hungry for turducken.

[#26 posted by Adam Stanhope, February 25, 2009 10:41 AM]

Several people beat me to it...

The video was from Brazil. The animal is most likely a tapir. Unless this happened at a zoo or a safari park, it was not a hippo.

[#27 posted by Adam Stanhope, February 25, 2009 10:43 AM]

Or Capibara.

[#28 posted by machinelf, February 25, 2009 10:55 AM]

If only the hippo gave a little wink...

[#29 posted by Uncle_Max, February 25, 2009 10:59 AM]

You know, when I woke up this morning I distinctly remember thinking to myself "No matter what happens today, at least I'll go to sleep tonight not knowing what a snake looks like regurgitating a hippo/tapir/capibara."

What a fool I was.

[#30 posted by SomeGuy, February 25, 2009 11:03 AM]

Teller @7

No. Anaconderexia.

[#31 posted by cjp, February 25, 2009 11:24 AM]

#9- No-Saint Exupery did put that chapter in...It's right after the one where the businessman is mowed down by a disgruntled colleague and just before the lamp-lighter commits ritual immolation. Ah, the classics!

[#32 posted by agnot, February 25, 2009 11:26 AM]

I hate it when that happens.

[#33 posted by Bilsko, February 25, 2009 11:27 AM]

The news announcer says the snake was pulled from the Rio Jacaré, which according to Gmaps is in Brotas (close to Araraquara, where the announcer says it happens) -- so it wasn't in a zoo or park

[#34 posted by Teller, February 25, 2009 11:34 AM]

#28: Muy elegante!

[#35 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 11:35 AM]

If only breach births were so easy!

[#36 posted by Phikus, February 25, 2009 11:37 AM]

I am going to have this image in my head anytime hereafter where I am at the porcelain throne.

Anyone want to make a version where it goes backward after, then forward again? (-to Yakkity Sax, of course.)

Someguy@28: FTW!

[#37 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 11:50 AM]

Are we sure this clip isn't just playing in reverse?

[#38 posted by boxlightbox, February 25, 2009 12:18 PM]

I'm sort of in the camp of thinking this is reversed footage of a snake ingesting a hippo.

[#39 posted by winkingskunk, February 25, 2009 12:38 PM]

and i thought my cat's furballs were disgusting...

[#40 posted by flip, February 25, 2009 12:58 PM]

Here's to all the people that believe:

• That Snakes this large live in Africa,
• That hippo's are also found in South America
• Large constrictors can only be found in zoos,
• That large constrictors eat hippos,
• That they "explode" after eating their food...

or that humans taunting and distressing a wild animal are actually trying to help it.

[#41 posted by Antinous / Moderator, February 25, 2009 1:16 PM]

Um.
♥ The African Rock Python can grow to 32 feet.
♥ Snake bursts after dining on an alligator.

[#42 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 1:19 PM]

@36: http://tinyurl.com/ct4ub6

[#43 posted by entropyred, February 25, 2009 1:26 PM]

All I could think: this must be what giving birth is like in reverse.

[#44 posted by Big Ed Dunkel, February 25, 2009 3:09 PM]

That reminds me of my night hugging the throne in the Eagle Tavern, circa New Year's Eve 1979.

[#45 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 3:22 PM]

@ Jaypee: I'm very glad to see someone who knows what they're talking about. Kudos to you for being well read :3

[#46 posted by morcheeba, February 25, 2009 3:26 PM]

@43 - Isn't it more like giving birth in forward? Or am I fundamentally misunderstanding the whole birth process? ;-)

[#47 posted by barnaby, February 25, 2009 3:38 PM]

It's not a hippo. It's the Montauk Monster!!!

[#48 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 4:00 PM]

Definitely an anaconda, yellow belly with a clearly green/olive color on the skin and black spot patterns. Definitely wild and in South America. Definitely not a capibara, definitely a Tapir. It clearly has a snout unlike the capibara and the three clawed foot of the tapir. Hippos have a foot that is more similar to an elephants.

The Tapir lives in the region and is a common prey along the Amazon basin. The villagers probably thought the anaconda had eaten a child or more likely live stock (a semi-common occurrence), and where goading it to vomit so that they could see what it had eaten. The reason the tapir looks shiny and smooth as opposed to hairy, is because of the acids and mucous from the snakes stomachs. I can confirm this personally as I've seen my own snake throw up a rat when it was taken to the vet too early after a feed (will never do that again.)

I'd post more links but i think the biology majors here have been pedantic enough for one day.

[#49 posted by LOSERKID, February 25, 2009 5:15 PM]

IDK what it was but it was SICK!!!

i a good way. lol;)

[#50 posted by happygolucky, February 25, 2009 6:19 PM]

oohhh yuck...dinner any1?

[#51 posted by Chang, February 25, 2009 6:57 PM]

I'd find it hard to digest anything with a guy draggin me around by the neck and wacking me with a raft oar. Sheesh! Can't a guy eat a hippo without someone getting all up in his grill?

[#52 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 7:47 PM]

the only reason he threw it back up was because they were draggin at him and hitting him. i bet he worked hard to get that hippo too. i'd eat them to replace my lost meal.

[#53 posted by thelibrarianne, February 25, 2009 8:26 PM]

Oy. I could have probably lived my whole life very happily NOT seeing that. It was like a train wreck; once I hit play I couldn't look away.

Isn't nature kind of awesome, though?

[#54 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 8:46 PM]

The reason the snake spit that....whatever that was was because the stupid people in the back were bugging it, and the snake was scared. the snake wasnt able to get out of there with food in its stomach because it takes them a few hours to digest their food. since the snake was scared and wanted to just get away from the humans there it had to get rid of its food by throwing it out. so stupid people that were paddling the snake instead of just leaving it alone

[#55 posted by Anonymous, February 25, 2009 8:47 PM]

Maybe the people wanted to make sure it wasn't a child in the snakes belly.

I've read of one anaconda a while back that swallowed a child from a near village.

[#56 posted by Bill Albertson, February 26, 2009 1:28 AM]

2 snakes 1 hippo... no, 2 paddlers 1 snake... oh, never mind... as long is it isn't 2 girls 1 cup.

[#57 posted by MarkM, February 26, 2009 11:37 AM]

@Regurgitating snake:
File that in the "What was i thinking?" category.

[#58 posted by bklynchris, February 26, 2009 12:03 PM]

Now that's what I'm talking about! Thank you old school Boing Boing. @36 I thought maybe too, but realized that the elongated rigor mortis could only have occurred if it had been devoured by an anaconda or died stuck inside of a storm culvert.

[#59 posted by Anonymous, February 27, 2009 1:54 PM]

I work in a zoo and this video made the rounds in the office about a year and a half ago.

General consensus was this happened in a zoo, where a reticulated python had eaten a juvenile hippo (which one had escaped and gotten into the other's enclosure, who knows). The zookeepers were afraid the python could not safely digest the hippo, and so induced the snake into regurgitating the remains.

Alternately, I guess they probably wanted their baby hippo back. A little too late and worse for wear, I'm afraid.

[#60 posted by Anonymous, March 2, 2009 7:02 AM]

"This video appears to show a large snake regurgitating a small hippo that it was unable to digest."

Not really. The prey doesn't really look like a hippo (the head is the wrong shape) and it doesn't look like the snake had any trouble digesting anything - it just was caught and harassed into regurgitating before it had time to digest the prey...

[#61 posted by Anonymous, March 5, 2009 5:08 AM]

It's an Anta, the biggest native mammal in South America.