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What happens when a python eats a porcupine? Hint: It's not pretty. A hungry snake in South Africa just found this out the hard way when it ate a porcupine for supper and died less than a week later.

On June 14, a cyclist riding along one of the mountain bike trails at the Lake Eland Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, spotted this engorged snake.

 

No one knew at first what the snake had eaten; just that it must have been something fairly large. Park rangers suspected the python feasted on a small warthog or a baby impala. 

Less than a week later, on Saturday, June 20, park rangers found the python dead near the bike trail. When they cut it open, they found a 30-pound (13.8 kilograms) porcupine.

 

It still isn't clear if this python's spiky meal was actually responsible for the predator's death. Rangers found the snake underneath a rocky ledge, where it had apparently fallen. On impact, the quills inside its engorged belly may have pierced the python's digestive tract, which could have killed the animal, Jennifer Fuller said, general manager at the game reserve.

 

 

Believe it or not, pythons and other snakes do sometimes eat porcupines. However, many snakes end up regretting their choice of snack because the porcupine's quills can pierce all the way through a hungry snake's body.

Credit: Images and story courtesy of Lake Eland Game Reserve and Live Science