in bagasse is Costa Rica National
Geographic Explorer Susan Perry captures
a grisly scene unfolding in her backyard
a 10 foot boa entangles an enormous
iguana holding it in a vice-like grip
lacking a poisonous bite constrictors
rely on another weapon brute force
within this coiled tangle of predator
and prey thousands upon thousands of
powerful muscles flex and squeeze the
constrictors prey the biggest
constrictors can squeeze with a force
equivalent to nine thousand pounds of
pressure that’s like having a school bus
on your chest the pressure cuts off
blood flow to the body
stopping the preys heart but can this
Conqueror consume the spoils of victory
unlike nature’s other top predators
snakes cannot rip and chew their meals
they must swallow them whole as the
serpent swings his mouth over the
iguanas lifeless body he reveals another
weapon in his arsenal the quadrate this
tiny bone in the snake’s mouth allows
the boa to open his jaw at two points if
humans were built like snakes our mouths
could open up to a 120 degree angle and
it doesn’t stop there his lower jaw is
actually two separate parts this
ingenious adaptation means these snakes
can swing their mouths wider than their
skull when swallowing prey but this
super-sized meal needs more than a big
mouth and this snake has another trick
up his scales
deep inside his mouth like two sets of
razor-sharp inner teeth able to move
independently from the rest of his mouth
these inner teeth bite into the prey
rocking the skull back and forth
in real time it takes hours for this boa
to bite and pull itself over the iguana
but this boa may have bitten off more
than he could swallow the size of his
meal stretches his scales to the limit
ripping open is flesh near the mouth for
explorer Susan Perry this extraordinary
encounter is just another ordinary day
in the field
Geographic Explorer Susan Perry captures
a grisly scene unfolding in her backyard
a 10 foot boa entangles an enormous
iguana holding it in a vice-like grip
lacking a poisonous bite constrictors
rely on another weapon brute force
within this coiled tangle of predator
and prey thousands upon thousands of
powerful muscles flex and squeeze the
constrictors prey the biggest
constrictors can squeeze with a force
equivalent to nine thousand pounds of
pressure that’s like having a school bus
on your chest the pressure cuts off
blood flow to the body
stopping the preys heart but can this
Conqueror consume the spoils of victory
unlike nature’s other top predators
snakes cannot rip and chew their meals
they must swallow them whole as the
serpent swings his mouth over the
iguanas lifeless body he reveals another
weapon in his arsenal the quadrate this
tiny bone in the snake’s mouth allows
the boa to open his jaw at two points if
humans were built like snakes our mouths
could open up to a 120 degree angle and
it doesn’t stop there his lower jaw is
actually two separate parts this
ingenious adaptation means these snakes
can swing their mouths wider than their
skull when swallowing prey but this
super-sized meal needs more than a big
mouth and this snake has another trick
up his scales
deep inside his mouth like two sets of
razor-sharp inner teeth able to move
independently from the rest of his mouth
these inner teeth bite into the prey
rocking the skull back and forth
in real time it takes hours for this boa
to bite and pull itself over the iguana
but this boa may have bitten off more
than he could swallow the size of his
meal stretches his scales to the limit
ripping open is flesh near the mouth for
explorer Susan Perry this extraordinary
encounter is just another ordinary day
in the field
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