The boa constrictor got its name for a reason. To kill its prey, a boa will coil around it, squeezing hard enough to stop the prey’s blood from flowing, and then, stretching its jaws open, devour it whole. They are known to eat opossums and rats. Some of their larger relatives, anacondas, can eat capybara and deer, and there have been some instances of pythons eating people.
But constricting and ingesting prey is no small – or quick – feat. “They do this for 10, 15, up to 45 minutes,” says Elizabeth Brainerd, an evolutionary biologist at Brown University. “And that takes quite a bit of energy, so they have to be breathing.”
