Porcupine Turns the Tables on a Hungry Python

Quick Take

• The porcupine's quills weren't the only factor that sealed the python's fate. Something else pushed the meal from dangerous to deadly.
• A python swallowing a porcupine sounds like a freak accident, but science says it happens far more often than anyone expected. See how common it is →
• Pythons can dissolve bones with their stomach acid, yet a single meal still managed to kill one from the inside out.
• The same stretchy anatomy that lets pythons eat crocodiles and goats whole couldn't save this one from its own appetite. Explore python feeding anatomy →

Despite being non-venomous, pythons (Pythonidae) are still deadly creatures. They can grow up to 100 pounds and 30 feet long. They use their muscular bodies to constrict prey and cut off its blood flow, then swallow it whole. Pythons can be found hanging from trees or slithering through wetlands and rivers. While these snakes are effective hunters, it is their prey that sometimes gets the last laugh. When one python tried to eat a prickly porcupine, for example, it was in for a rude awakening.

In June 2015, an African Rock Python branched out from its usual diet and swallowed a porcupine, per CNN. Unfortunately, eating the 30-pound creature actually killed the snake. Park rangers at the Lake Eland Game Reserve in South Africa discovered the dead 12-foot-long python and opened its stomach to discover the cause of its untimely demise, which is how they found the large porcupine victim.

According to the outlet, it wasn’t the python’s digestive system that led to its death; rather, it was the porcupine’s sharp quills that punctured the snake’s digestive tract. And the worst part is, it wasn’t an instantaneous death. According to LiveScience, the python had to live with an uncomfortable-looking full stomach for nearly a week before it succumbed to its injuries. A fall from a rocky ledge may have also aided the quills in puncturing the snake.

Is it normal for snakes to eat porcupines?

Surprisingly, a porcupine snack is more common for snakes than you might think. A 2003 study in the Phyllomedusa Journal of Herpetology found that pythons and other large snakes eat quilled mammals, often causing internal injuries due to the sharp quills. They don’t always die from eating porcupines or other similar creatures, but the dietary choice is risky.

Jennifer Fuller, general manager at the game reserve in South Africa, told LiveScience in 2015 that the pythons that live in Lake Eland Game Reserve have eaten even larger mammals, like the 50-pound adult oribi antelope.

What else do pythons eat?

Pythons, like other types of snakes, are obligate carnivores, which means they can only survive by eating other animals. Most of the time, they eat rodents, amphibians, and small mammals, occasionally eating porcupines and other unusual creatures. A snake’s stomach acid typically helps break down the pokey quills, allowing for safe digestion, but that isn’t always the case.

Pythons have also been documented eating goats and crocodiles, which is possible due to the unique stretchy ligaments in their mouths that allow them to open their jaws extraordinarily wide.

Snakes, including pythons, can go weeks between meals. They simply stop their digestive juices from secreting and shrink the lining of their intestines that absorb nutrients. When they are ready to eat, pythons’ digestive systems can become so potent that they break down the bones in their prey, allowing the snake to absorb calcium and phosphorus. According to a 2025 study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, this process involves not only strong stomach acid but also specialized intestinal cells that help absorb minerals from digested bones. Snakes certainly are fascinating and adventurous eaters, even if their meals occasionally prove to be deadly.