When Skip Maas first adopted Agrapina, a mottled ball python, she hadn’t eaten in 14 months.
But as he soon observed, she was still a taut coil of spring-loaded muscle. Presented with a rat, she struck quickly, constricted it and then gorged on her meal.
And then her body performed another feat pythons are known for: It accelerated its metabolism dramatically to deal with the sudden influx of protein and fats, says Maas, “to help break down that meal and extract all of its nutrients.”
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