Park puts world's longest snake on show

Jakarta - A recreation park in Indonesia is displaying a 49-foot python -- making it the longest ever captured -- that was revered as a tribal ruler and has a huge appetite for dogs.

The huge, dark-colored male snake has a diameter of 2.8 feet, weighs 984 pounds and is 48 feet, 7 inches long, according to keepers of an animal exhibition at the Curugsewu park in the small Central Java town of Kendal.

Snake handler Imam Darmanto told Reuters the nameless serpent likes to gulp down dogs.

"This snake swallows up dogs. In a month, it can eat around five dogs," he said.

According to the Guinness World Records, the longest discovered snake was also a reticulated python from Indonesia. It was 33 feet long when found in Sulawesi island in 1912.

Last year, Samantha, a snake measuring eight meters and which was dubbed the largest in captivity, died in the Bronx Zoo in New York. Samantha came from Indonesia's side of Borneo island.

Darmanto found the reticulated python last year on Sumatra island, where it had been caught and kept in captivity by villagers.

But it took months to get permission from the villagers, who revered the creature, to bring it to Java.

"It was seen as the ruler of the Kubu tribe. So, we had to go by the book and the tourism authorities had to ask for it," Darmanto said.

The Kubu tribe live in the jungles of southern Sumatra and shun encounters with the modern world.

The snake has tripled the number of visitors to the state-run park, normally known just for its scenery and waterfalls. -- Reuters

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