KEEPER'S ESCAPE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 13

KEEPER'S ESCAPE

ATTACKED BY PYTHON

Mr. Craythorn, the veteran reptilekeepor at Belle "Vuc Zoo, Manchester, escaped death recently by a fraction of a second when a 30-foot python sprang'at him as he wont into its cage to clean the pool.

The incident was seen through the glass front of the cage by a number of ( visitors, somo of whom on seeing the snake dart from a ledge over Craythorn's head screamed and rushed out of the house.

"I had never been nearer to death," Craythorn told the "News-Chronicle" afterwards. "The python lay above my head coiled up. I had a sudden premonition and looked up, I saw a flash and was so startled that I fell.

"As I -went down I saw the python's head shooting out and it just brushed against mine."

"The snake -went for me a second time," he added, "but I managed to scramble through the door. As I slammed the door the python's head hit it violently. Once before he tried to attack me, but this was a much nearer thing, as I was practically trapped in the cage."

The python afterwards flung itself repeatedly against the glass, and the authorities therefore closed the house for an hour until it had calmed down.

Thig python, -which is over thirty years old, is credited with being the longest snake in captivity. Pythons—which are constricting snakes and not poisonous—^have tremendous crushing power. They kill by seizing their prey with their jaws and then coiling themselves around tho .victhtfs-T)Oay. till they crush it to death.