This slippery customer made short work of the impala, and was caught on camera by eagle-eyed snapper Fred von Winckelmann These amazing pictures show the stunning power of nature as a python swallows an antelope in one go. Eagle-eyed Dutch snapper Fred von Winckelmann caught the whole episode on camera, as the eight-foot snake devoured its prey in the Moremi Game Reserve in Botswana. "Seeing an African rock python swallowing a young impala is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting," he said. "The snake was calmly swallowing his meal without giving us any attention, so I was allowed to go belly-down to get eye-level photos of the reptile. "We arrived when the snake was starting to dislocate its jaws around the antelope's waist and in 45 minutes it swallowed the last hooves. "That was when we let the python digest it in peace because they are so vulnerable when doing so." In order to swallow such large prey, python have evolved jaws rigged with tendons, muscles and ligaments that allow them to stretch to extraordinary lengths. They constrict their prey using powerful body muscles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot98CLsiW0g
