# Scrub python attacks baby



## Yellowtail (Oct 20, 2018)

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news...e/news-story/26f8105120133e0b28c54933f437ac0e

This was reported in the media as a "4.2m scrub python"


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## Synveil (Oct 20, 2018)

Saw this and thought why in the hell did she not do something sooner, call a re-locator or something. 
She believes it has been "stalking" her kid for ages, we all know snakes don't do that, but if she knew a 4m+ snake was casually hanging around her house (for months apparently), why wasnt it dealt with before it did something?


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## cris (Oct 20, 2018)

Doors and windows are a better option than stabbing a snake to death when it attacks your baby.


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## Synveil (Oct 20, 2018)

cris said:


> Doors and windows are a better option than stabbing a snake to death when it attacks your baby.


Little hard when it's already got a hold of the kid, at that point you've got bugger all chance of getting a snake that big to let go in a hurry.


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## Sdaji (Oct 21, 2018)

Snake people keep telling me that snakes *never* attack humans. Was this baby trying to catch or kill the scrubby? What did the baby do to provoke this defensive reaction?


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## Synveil (Oct 21, 2018)

Sdaji said:


> Snake people keep telling me that snakes *never* attack humans. Was this baby trying to catch or kill the scrubby? What did the baby do to provoke this defensive reaction?


No doubt the snake probably saw the kid as food, and the kid went a bit close to it so went for it. 

But she said the snakes been stalking her kid for months. And no snakes gonna watch it's possible food for months.


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## Bl69aze (Oct 21, 2018)

Aren’t parents meant to supervise their kids ? How does a 4m snake sneak up on a kid


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## GBWhite (Oct 21, 2018)

Sdaji said:


> Snake people keep telling me that snakes *never* attack humans. Was this baby trying to catch or kill the scrubby? What did the baby do to provoke this defensive reaction?



We'll never know the answers to those questions we've only heard the facts following the incident. Personally, from what I've read and heard on the TV I don't think the snake was intending to kill or eat the child but was acting defensively. Anyone who has had experience with large Scrubbies (or any size Scrubbie or other species of python for that matter) know that if they are intent on killing a food item they hit once, hold the bite and coil around the whole animal in the blink of an eye. Then they hold on and apply pressure until the animal is asphyxiated before devouring it. They don't bite, let go and bite again and again or wrap around a single limb as has been stated.

Now in saying that, given the size of both the child and snake there is a very high probability that the snake may have gone on to kill and consume the child if there was no intervention. Either way it would have been a very harrowing experience for the mother and the grandparents to witness and all things considered it sounds like the young lad is a very lucky kid.


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## Sdaji (Oct 21, 2018)

GBWhite said:


> We'll never know the answers to those questions we've only heard the facts following the incident. Personally, from what I've read and heard on the TV I don't think the snake was intending to kill or eat the child but was acting defensively. Anyone who has had experience with large Scrubbies (or any size Scrubbie or other species of python for that matter) know that if they are intent on killing a food item they hit once, hold the bite and coil around the whole animal in the blink of an eye. Then they hold on and apply pressure until the animal is asphyxiated before devouring it. They don't bite, let go and bite again and again or wrap around a single limb as has been stated.
> 
> Now in saying that, given the size of both the child and snake there is a very high probability that the snake may have gone on to kill and consume the child if there was no intervention. Either way it would have been a very harrowing experience for the mother and the grandparents to witness and all things considered it sounds like the young lad is a very lucky kid.



Do you think it may be more plausible that the 4 metre scrubby approached the baby with the intention of eating it, rather than there somehow being a situation where a baby approached a 4m scrubby and the snake felt the need to defend itself? Or, at the very least, given what a scrub python is (a very large snake which literally is specialised in ambushing/hunting down large mammals, killing them and eating them, which is literally the normal, routine way they obtain their meals), do you think it's plausible that the snake saw a potential meal and attacked it? Do you think the wallabies etc which scrubbies eat are also first trying to attack the snake?

This toddler is lucky the snake grabbed him by the leg.


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## GBWhite (Oct 21, 2018)

Sdaji said:


> Do you think it may be more plausible that the 4 metre scrubby approached the baby with the intention of eating it, rather than there somehow being a situation where a baby approached a 4m scrubby and the snake felt the need to defend itself? Or, at the very least, given what a scrub python is (a very large snake which literally is specialised in ambushing/hunting down large mammals, killing them and eating them, which is literally the normal, routine way they obtain their meals), do you think it's plausible that the snake saw a potential meal and attacked it? Do you think the wallabies etc which scrubbies eat are also first trying to attack the snake?
> 
> This toddler is lucky the snake grabbed him by the leg.



It may be plausible but as I said, we'll never know if the snake approached the child with he intention to eat it or not or if the child grabbed or touched the snake out of curiosity and the snake acted defensively. Going of what I've read and heard. I'm of the opinion of the later and I'm entitled to that opinion. From the pictures attached to the story it appears that it bit him by the arm.


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## Pauls_Pythons (Oct 21, 2018)

cris said:


> Doors and windows are a better option than stabbing a snake to death when it attacks your baby.



Wouldn't be a veranda with windows and doors would it?


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