Studying Pythons As Couch Potatoes
A team of University
of California at Irvine researchers has found pythons, just like humans,
can be rendered sleepy and inactive by the type of food they eat.
In particular,
meals high in proteins and mixed with some carbohydrates require much more
energy to digest than lower protein or single-food meals, so the snakes
must rest while digesting because the process requires so much energy.
The researchers
fed hatchling Burmese pythons a diet of mice and rats for 4 months prior
to experiments. Then the baby pythons were fed various meals of proteins,
carbohydrates and fats. Meal volumes were varied and feeding was assigned
randomly to each python.
The researchers
found high-protein diets required the most energy and rendered the snakes
completely inactive during digestion.
The findings
could help researchers understand how other animals -- and humans -- metabolize
food.
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