News: 2 die in rock python attack

[Slitherous]

Agree with you on all points. I should mention the speaker wasn't a docent. It was a VERY small facility and the staff who care for the animals and dive in the tanks show the guests around.

I'm still a newbie, but I was also unimpressed with the husbandry. There were two crowded enclosures, both had multiple snakes in them. (Is it ok to house more than one Burmese or Retic together? Like I said, I'm pretty new.) I don't know what the temps/humidity were like, but at least one snake looked like it had had a really bad shed.

To be completely fair, the staff seemed to really care about the animals and were very protective of the ones that were brought out for interaction with the public (a Burm and a baby gator). They also mentioned that some of the large snakes had come from private owners who were no longer able to care for them, and the patchy ones MAY have arrived there that way. Or not.

Usually not a great idea, but as long as they are fed separately and kept clean I guess it's possible, (but not really recommended). Problems I've personally seen in such situations are lack of hygiene, (stink, mites, mess), and then I saw one instance in a pet store years ago in SoCal where two bigger burms were stupidly fed together inside their single enclosure, (by a very dumb employee of the store). The two snakes ended up striking/constricting one rabbit at the same time, the guy called for help but even then they were barely able to pry one of them off that rabbit, (and each other, had to pull that big ball 'o snakes and the rabbit all the way out of their cage to do it); it was quite a good floor show actually, very entertaining to watch. Had they not gotten them apart the larger of the two would have just kept going and swallowed the other...rabbit and all. Back then, (waayy back then), I had 3 Burms in the 12'-14' range, (no Retics or African rocks though, both species were too nasty tempered for me), but had separate enclosures for them. I'm only keeping Balls nowadays, but did keep the biggies when I was young, spry and less wise, (glad I outgrew that particular "phase" of my herping life).
So, the incident in New Brunswick sounds very unlikely to me, and I can say that having had hands-on experience with big pythons they are dangerous if taken for granted, but two children at once with no one hearing any commotion? Possible, yes......probable, no! I admit that an African Rock and a Burmese are polar opposites as far as temperament goes, and if you want to get badly bitten be incautious with an AR. However, I still can't imagine a circumstance where an AR would, or even could constrict two kids to death at once like it was described in the news....knowing what I know it just doesn't make any sense.

S