After a meal, a Burmese python’s heart grows by 40%. This addition to its heart’s muscle mass happens within 48 hours of feeding. The change enable the python to meet the metabolic demands of digesting a meal. The process is reversible, with the snake’s heart shrinking back to its original size once feeding ends. One of the world’s largest snakes, the Burmese python can grow as long as 25 feet and weigh as much as 90 kilos. Native to Southeast Asia, it preys on mammals, birds and other animals, which it swallows whole.
“These animals have a remarkable ability to shut down their metabolism between meals,” said James Hicks, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine.
“We currently have 1.5-kilogram [3.3-pound] pythons in the lab that have not eaten for three months and have only lost one to ten grams [four to thirty-five hundredths of an ounce] of weight,” noted Hicks, who is also the study’s lead author.
But when these reptiles do feed, Hicks added, they often tackle prey that is 50 to 100 percent the size of their own body mass. Such meals require a considerable digestive effort.
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