WHAT IS THE LARGEST SNAKE?

Talking about largest snakes, last week one of my postings was entitled, A COMING TRUMP DICTATORSHIP?  Someone e-mailed me this link of Senator Chris Murphy's speech on the Senate floor, also sounding an alarm about President Trump's coordinated effort to dismantle democracy.  Watch it! 

The Florida Museum reports that the Titanoboa is the largest snake that ever lived.  Perhaps up to 50 feet long 2500 pounds and 3 feet wide, was the largest predator on the planet after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  However, 23 million years ago came the Megalodon.  Okay, a deviation, for this was not a snake. Several films, but there are so few remains, that there can only be estimates of size:  perhaps 47 feet to 80 feet long and at most, 200,000 pounds. However, this is about 10 times larger that an adult Great White Shark.  Here are two comparisons.

Today, the Green Anaconda is the longest and heaviest snake in the world:  30 feet and 550 pounds.  Well, then again, other reports indicate that the Reticulated Python can reach 32 feet, but it weighs only up to 320 pounds.  The heaviest Burmese Python caught in the annual Florida Python Challenge was 19 feet long and 215 pounds.  Had a hundred eggs.

Here is recent video of one in the Everglades.  And, by the way, if you have nothing better to do and want to win $10,000, the 2025 Florida Python Challenge is from July 11 until July 20.  Size does not matter, the victor is the participant who removes the most Burmese pythons.  Info on registration here.  Over the past dozen years of the challenge, more than a thousand pythons have been caught.

By the way, one of the world's smallest snakes can be found in Hawaii.  We are home to the Brahminy Blind Snake (can detect light), which is non-venomous.  About 6 inches long, it feeds on ants and termites.  Came to Hawaii in the 1930s in potting soil from the Philippines.  Alas, this is not the smallest snake, which is the Barbados threadsnake (below) only discovered in Barbados in 2008.  It is only 4 inches long.

One concern in Hawaii is about the potential infestation of the Brown Tree Snake (BTS) from Guam.  At least eight of them were found in Hawaii between 1981 and 1998, associated with movement of civilian military vehicles and cargo from Guam.  The USDA National Wildlife Research Center puts the possible cost to Hawaii of the BTS at $1.7 billion/year if introduced to Hawaii.  If you see this snake, call 911 or 643-pest immediately!

For the record, the BTS:

• Is nocturnal, and mostly lives in trees,
• Can be up to 9 feet long.
• Native to the South Pacific, New Guinea and Northern Australia.
• Introduced to Guam in the 1940's hidden in cargo.
• Responsible for the extinction of up to 13 forest bird species and three types of lizards.  Terns, noddys and shearwaters no longer next on Guam.
• Because of the absence of birds and lizards, there has been a rise in the abundance of insects, which affects crop production.
• The BTS causes frequent electrical power outages by climbing power lines and getting into transformers and electrical boxes.  
• At one time, the population was around 50 snakes/acre.  Has no predator on Guam.  Efforts were made, and the infestation is now down to as low as 10 snakes/acre.

I don't know of any snake songs, but, some people do this.

• Here are the top 50 snake songs.  
• And 50 more.  
• ZZ Top with Tube Snake Boogie.
• You've heard this "snake" song, which is an Arabian folk song, sometimes called The Streets of Cairo and "the snake charmer song."

• 
  Of course snake charmers in India don't use any of the above.
• Here is one using a flute.
• Traditional street performer with his Cobra.
• Beautiful Indian Music called Snake Charmers.
• Generally used is the pungi, a Hindu fold music reed pipe instrument.
• Here is The Snake Charmer from Scotland to end this divergence.

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