A 2011 research article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences tells a harrowing tale.
The authors, led by Thomas Headland of SIL International, document the existence of human-hunting reticulated pythons (Malayopython reticulatus) in the northern part of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines.
Based on a series of interviews with the Agta Negritos–a hunter-gatherer group of the Philippines who are among the island chain’s oldest inhabitants (predating Austronesian migration)–the researchers report that reticulated pythons had attacked 26% of the 58 male tribesmen they spoke with, as well as one woman. The gender discrepancy is likely based on the fact that men of the Agta Negritos are responsible for going into the jungle to hunt for game and edible plants.
“Usually those people attacked had sustained bites that left scars on the lower limbs, hands, and torso, and they had escaped by dispatching snakes with a bolo knife or homemade shotgun,” report the authors.
However, six fatalities were reported. In one case, a man named Dinsiweg was killed in Dinapgigi, a jungle region on the east coast of Luzon. The man’s son, Sinayatan, found the snake the next day and cut it open to recover and bury the body. Another fatal incident involved a reticulated python sneaking into a thatched dwelling at sunset and killing two children.
While deaths are rare, reticulated pythons in the Phillippines have no reservations about hunting and killing humans, as well as other primates. The researchers describe the relationship between the Agta people and the reticulated python as “reciprocally prey, predators and potential competitors.”
“We show that 20th century hunter-gatherers had intense, complex interactions with giant serpents,” state the authors. “The threat of being killed by a python must have significantly influenced the lives of precontact Agta, and because they learned during butchering that those snakes also eat deer, pigs, and macaques, they would have accurately regarded pythons as ecological competitors.”
Reticulated pythons aren’t the only snake species capable of hunting and killing primates, even humans. Here are two other giant snakes known to have hunted people.
1. African Python
The African python (Python sebae and Python natalensis) is a formidable constrictor snake native to sub-Saharan Africa. Among the largest snake species in the world, African pythons can grow to lengths exceeding 20 feet. They possess a distinctive pattern of brown blotches outlined by lighter scales, providing effective camouflage in their natural habitat. Preferring diverse environments including grasslands, savannas, forests, and even semi-desert regions, African pythons are highly adaptable predators, preying on a variety of animals including mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Willem Bosman, a merchant in the service of the Dutch West India Company in the late 1600s, published an influential book on the Ivory Coast of West Africa. In the book, he described an incident in the town of Butre (in present-day Ghana) in which an African python was killed and the whole body of a human was found inside the massive snake.
2. Anaconda
The anaconda, a group of large, non-venomous snakes belonging to the genus Eunectes, is renowned for its impressive size and power. The most iconic among them is the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), which inhabits the dense jungles and swamps of South America. With the ability to reach lengths exceeding 20 feet and weights of over 200 pounds, the green anaconda holds the title of the world’s heaviest snake. Known for their olive-green coloration with distinctive black spots, anacondas are expert ambush predators, utilizing their incredible strength and formidable constriction to overpower prey that ranges from small mammals to large caimans.
Secondhand accounts of giant anacondas consuming full-grown humans can be found in Ralph Blomberg’s 1956 book “Giant Snake Hunt.”
He writes, “We also hear gross exaggerations about how dangerous the anaconda is. Despite intensive research, I have only been able to find two definite cases of anacondas causing the death of human beings. One man was killed on the Napo River in Ecuador, when he went for a swim and was entwined by one of these snakes. He struggled in vain to get away but was drawn underwater and carried off.”
John Murphy, author of a 2020 chapter on Giant Snake-Human Relationships, sums up the relationship between serpent-eating men and man-eating serpents succinctly:
“During much, if not all, of human history, we were sympatric with several of the most massive snakes, and these animals undoubtedly were selection factors in our evolution. They preyed upon us, we killed and ate them, and they were one of our competitors for much of the same protein.”
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