Boa Constructor Does Not Cause Choking

For many years, we all have believed that constrictor boas and pythons use choking as their hunting method and as the first step before eating their prey.

But in 1994, David Hardy, an American Zoologist, propose a theory. This scientist noticed that for choking a living organism, it is needed more time of what snakes really use to kill their prey, but at that time his theory had no attention.

Eleven years later, the investigator Scott Boback published in the magazine Journal of Experimental Biology a study where he supports the Hardy’s theory: snakes do not choke, but they cut the blood circulation to vital organs of their victims.

During this study, investigators measured the blood pressure of some lab rats that were under anesthesia to avoid the suffering during the study, while they were constricted and the investigators noticed how the blood pressure decreased and the vein pressure increased. That implicates the oxygen that travels in the blood circulation, does not reach the brain and other vital organs, causing the death in the prey in just seconds.