WIKIMEDIA, JENS RASCHENDORF
It has long been assumed that boa constrictors kill their prey by squeezing them until they suffocate. But a study published this week (July 22) in the Journal of Experimental Biology, suggests otherwise. Interrupting blood flow turns out to be a faster and more deadly result of the boa’s tight grip, according to the study.
Researchers at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania measured the blood pressure and heart activity of rats as boas tightened their grips around the anaesthetized animals. The team compared those measurements to others taken before and after the constriction event and analyzed the rats’ blood chemistry, finding that it took just six seconds for a constricted rat’s arterial blood pressure to drop to half of its baseline and one minute for its ...
