Python handed over to authorities after decades in captivity

The python, weighing around 63 kg and 4.5 meters long, has been raised by 55-year-old Dang Dinh Quoc in Hoc Mon District since it was first hatched in 2000.

Quoc fed the python over 10 kg of chicken heads every two or three months.

"When I first raised it, the python was only the size of a pinky," he said. "Now it has grown too big, so I want to release it back to the forest."

A representative of the HCMC Forest Protection Department said the python is the largest one that the unit has ever received. After it was tranquilized, it took four people to move it. As the python has been raised in captivity since birth, rescuers will have to give it live food so it can learn how to hunt.

The Burmese python (Python bivittatius) is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It is also considered an endangered species in Vietnam’s Red Data Book. The python population is being threatened by hunting and loss of habitat.

 

 

Python handed over to authorities after decades in captivity

Cứu hộ trăn quý hiếm nặng 63 kg