55-foot Snake Found in Forest of Malaysia

[crocoduck_hunter]

Just a little. Especially given the obvious downward slope of the ground.

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by snopes

Forced perspective, anyone?

No, thanks. I'm trying to quit.

[me, no really]

This website http://www.etra.biz/rental%20Excavators.htm lists one of the excavators they rent as being able to dump to a height of 20 feet. I assume that if it can dump to 20 feet, then the boom can reach higher than that, but no idea how high. The OP photo shows the snake reaching nearly twice the distance from ground to the top of the bucket. I can't make out whether the arm is at it's full possible height or not. I assume the height that the bucket can reach is also measured from the ground at the centre of the pivot, which as crocoduck_hunter pointed out is lower than the ground where the snake touches the ground. It looks to me to be quite plausible that the snake is over 40 feet long, but how much over?

[ganzfeld]

ZOMG giant leaves!

[ganzfeld]

Originally Posted by me, no really

It looks to me to be quite plausible that the snake is over 40 feet long, but how much over?

Um... it's about 4 times the length of the business end of the shovel (the dipper), at best, so it's less than 4 meters.

[crocoduck_hunter]

Yeah, looking at that picture again, the forced perspective seems (to me) to be even worse than I first suspected: the excavator appears to be on a roadway that's been cut some distance below the grass that's visible in the foreground, probably four or five feet. And as Ganzfield points out, the snake is at most only about four times the length of the bucket it's suspended from- and hook to blade, a bucket on an excavator that size isn't four feet long. I agree with the 4 meter or so estimation of size.

[ganzfeld]

And who knows how big the bucket is? It could be just two feet long (not to mention that the snake is even in front of most of it, giving even more forced perspective). An eight foot snake. *yawn* (Poor snake, though.)

[Singing in the Drizzle]

Haven't we seen this one before a couple of years ago or is it a similar picture with a diffent snake and excavator holding it up.

[Mosherette]

Yes, I'm sure I've seen this one before too, or if not something extremely similar.

[Chorduroy]

Forced perspective is what it appears to be.

[Auburn Red]

Well I think uh I just crossed out Malaysia from my places to see list.

[vanilla]

140 year old snake?

Have snakes started to grow X inches per year so we can estimate their age like we do rings in trees?