Python’s ‘massive’ belly ignites social media debate in Australia. What did it eat?

Australia’s carpet pythons can reach more than 13 feet in length, but one captured in Queensland is getting attention for girth after swallowing something the size of a human arm.

That was the observation of snake catcher Stuart McKenzie in a video that had 34,000 views and 1,700 reactions and comments as of Dec. 13.

It quickly becomes clear in the three-minute video that McKenzie is stumped and a bit concerned over what the snake ate before his arrival.

“This is one of the biggest (consumed) food items I’ve ever seen. Look at the size of that,” he says in the video posted last week on Facebook.

“That’s nearly pet-cat (sized), unless it’s just a massive, massive opossum. Like, if I put my arm next to that, it’s as long as my arm, whatever that food item is.”

It was big enough that McKenzie suggested he might take the snake to a veterinarian and have it scanned for a pet’s microchip.

The exact location was not revealed, but it was in Buderim, about 65 miles north of Brisbane, McKenzie says in the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers video.

Commenters on social media quickly began sharing ideas on what the bulge might be, including a rottweiler, wombat, pig and/or small type of wallaby known as a red-legged pademelon.

One man joked McKenzie had found snakes have beer bellies, too, while others suggested neighbors “better do a head count.”

“Anyone missing a small child?” Lyndall Dixon asked.

“How did he get that down? Huge,” Bridget Didsbury wrote.

The video concludes with the snake being released into the wild at another location, with its belly still swollen.

As for what it ate, the company concluded it was short-eared opossum, a species known to reach about 20 inches in length.