question: How does snakes and Komodo Dragons deal with eating their food as a whole (eg a whole monkey) without them choking?
comment: cant talk about lizards, but snakes windpipe opening (the glottis) is very close to the front of the mouth so it isnt interupted when feeding - e.g. see here [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )
passages: Only very few species of snakes are physically capable of swallowing an adult human. Although quite a few claims have been made about giant snakes swallowing adult humans, only a limited number have been confirmed. In 2017 in Indonesia, an adult was discovered inside of a 7 metre long python, and on June 14, 2018 a 54 year old woman named Wa Tiba was eaten by a reticulated python, which had slithered into her garden at her home. Large constricting snakes will sometimes constrict and kill prey that are too large to swallow. Also, multiple cases are documented of medium-sized ( to ) captive Burmese pythons constricting and killing humans, including several nonintoxicated, healthy adult men, one of whom was a "student" zookeeper. In the zookeeper case, the python was attempting to swallow the zookeeper's head when other keepers intervened. In addition, at least one Burmese python as small as constricted and killed an intoxicated adult man.
   The Komodo dragon uses its tongue to detect, taste, and smell stimuli, as with many other reptiles, with the vomeronasal sense using the Jacobson's organ, rather than using the nostrils. With the help of a favorable wind and its habit of swinging its head from side to side as it walks, a Komodo dragon may be able to detect carrion from away. It only has a few taste buds in the back of its throat. Its scales, some of which are reinforced with bone, have sensory plaques connected to nerves to facilitate its sense of touch. The scales around the ears, lips, chin, and soles of the feet may have three or more sensory plaques.
   "Charlotte, N.C., March 25 (AP) - Pete, a thirty-foot python, had a late luncheon today - six months late. Pythons, Harry Lewiston, keeper of the reptile, explained, eat only about once every three months. Pete hurt his throat nine months ago and had to pass up two meals. Today, with an eight-foot rubber hose, he was fed a snack of thirty pounds of chopped meat, fifteen dozen eggs and fifteen pounds of crushed bone. It took eighteen men to hold Pete while they fed him."
   Komodo dragons eat by tearing large chunks of flesh and swallowing them whole while holding the carcass down with their forelegs. For smaller prey up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skulls, and expandable stomachs allow them to swallow prey whole. The undigested vegetable contents of a prey animal's stomach and intestines are typically avoided. Copious amounts of red saliva the Komodo dragons produce help to lubricate the food, but swallowing is still a long process (15–20 minutes to swallow a goat). A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed up the process by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully, the tree is knocked down. A small tube under the tongue that connects to the lungs allows it to breathe while swallowing. After eating up to 80% of its body weight in one meal, it drags itself to a sunny location to speed digestion, as the food could rot and poison the dragon if left undigested for too long. Because of their slow metabolism, large dragons can survive on as few as 12 meals a year. After digestion, the Komodo dragon regurgitates a mass of horns, hair, and teeth known as the gastric pellet, which is covered in malodorous mucus. After regurgitating the gastric pellet, it rubs its face in the dirt or on bushes to get rid of the mucus, suggesting it does not relish the scent of its own excretions.
   They later find the boat captain, Martin, severely injured. While driving frantically, they nearly crash into Oates (Billy Burke) and his maintenance co-worker Denby (Paul Gleeson), who were sent to kill all of the reptiles. Oates and Denby check on them and tend to Martin, who is beginning to succumb to an infection from his wounds—Oates explains it is an infection of several bacteria strains in the Komodo's saliva allowing them to track their prey. Oates and Denby call for help from Bracken (Simon Westaway), the man who sent them on the island to kill the Komodo dragons and is also helping Oates with legal problems.
   Section::::Joint intracellular and extracellular digestion in cnidarians.
  
  Joint intracellular and extracellular digestion In hydra and other cnidarians, the food is caught by the tentacles and ingested through the mouth into the single large digestive cavity, the gastrovascular cavity. Enzymes are secreted from the cells bordering this cavity and poured on the food for extracellular digestion. Small particles of the partially digested food are engulfed into the vacuoles of the digestive cells for intracellular digestion. Any undigested and un-absorbed food is finally thrown out of the mouth.
  
  Section::::Invert digestive systems are bags and tubes.
   The swallowing of whole leaves by apes without chewing has been observed for over 40 plant species.
   In 2007, a newspaper reported that a man from south east China claimed that eating live frogs for a month cured his intestinal problems. He also eats live mice and rats.
  
  Andrew Zimmern of the Travel Channel's "Bizarre Foods" ate frog sashimi. Though most of the frog is served dead (and raw), the meal begins by eating the frog's fresh, still-beating heart.
  
  Section::::Practice.:Vertebrates.:Monkey.
  
  Consuming monkey brain is attributed to the practice of bushmeat consumption in Africa and Asia.
  
  Section::::Practice.:Vertebrates.:Snake.
  
  Eating the beating heart and bile of live snakes is practiced in China and other parts of Asia.
  
  Section::::Practice.:Invertebrates.
  
  Section::::Practice.:Invertebrates.:Octopus.
   If the prey is standing, a solitary predator can use a throat clamp usually only if the prey is small or in shock. A strong, large animal can easily kick and injure the predator from this angle. A social predator can use the standing throat clamp much more easily because there can be other individuals on the back of the prey, stopping it from kicking, which could lead to collapse, or using a throat clamp periodically to tire the animal out. This latter method usually involves large, patient carnivores such as "Canis lupus" or the wolf and "Lyacon pictus" or the African wild dog. They surround the prey in relatively large numbers, individuals taking turns to jump in and grab the prey by the flanks to try and pull it down, while the prey forcing them off grows exhausted, and in the meantime, more experienced individuals secure a throat clamp on the distracted animal and hold on as long as possible to the struggling prey. The temporary throat clamp can make the prey dizzy and uncoordinated and even force it to go into shock if the chase and attack wasn't enough, aiding in the predator's attempts to pull it to the ground. Agile predators such a lions have been observed to perch on the upper back and neck of large cape buffalo and wrap around to secure a partial throat clamp.
   Larger species, such as monitor lizards, can feed on larger prey including fish, frogs, birds, mammals and other reptiles. Prey may be swallowed whole and torn into smaller pieces. Both bird and reptile eggs may also be consumed as well. Gila monsters and beaded lizards climb trees to reach both the eggs and young of birds. Despite being venomous, these species rely on their strong jaws to kill prey. Mammalian prey typically consists of rodents and leporids; the Komodo dragon can kill prey as large as water buffalo. Dragons are prolific scavengers, and a single decaying carcass can attract several from away. A dragon is capable of consuming a carcass in 17 minutes.
   The Yucatan monkey is frugivorous, with a diet consisting of around 90% fruit and 10% eggs and insects. In captivity, the Yucatan spider monkey’s diet generally consists of fruits, dog food, bread and a few vegetables, such as carrots and lettuce.
  
  The Yucatan spider monkey moves in straight lines towards its food, and is able to orient its movement to foraging areas invisible from its current vantage point. Individuals consistently plan out foraging areas ahead of time.
   In Korea, Sannakji is the preparation of live octopus that has been cut into small pieces or prepared whole, and served with its arms still squirming. Sannakji connoisseurs enjoy more than just the taste of the fresh meat; they enjoy the sensation of the still-active suction cups on the octopus' arms as they stick to the mouth. Novices are advised to chew before swallowing to avoid the threat of being choked.
  
  Section::::Practice.:Invertebrates.:Sea urchin.
   The main diet includes mostly small mammals and birds, but also frogs, lizards and tarantulas. Larger prey is struck and released, after which it is tracked down via its scent trail.
  
  Section::::Reproduction.
   Recent studies have found that many dogs with laryngeal paralysis have decreased motility of their esophagus. Animals with a history of regurgitation or vomiting should be fully evaluated for esophageal or other gastrointestinal disorders. Dogs with megaesophagus or other conditions causing frequent vomiting or regurgitation are at high risk for aspiration pneumonia after laryngeal tie-back. Permanent tracheostomy is an alternative surgical option for these dogs to palliate their clinical signs.
  
  Section::::Complications of surgical treatment.
   Section::::Behavior.
  
  Most nemerteans are solitary, free-living animals.
  
  Section::::Feeding ecology and diet.
   In fish, the tongue is largely bony and much less mobile and getting the food to the back of the pharynx is helped by pumping water in its mouth and out of its gills.
  
  In snakes, the work of swallowing is done by raking with the lower jaw until the prey is far enough back to be helped down by body undulations.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Dysphagia
  
  BULLET::::- Occlusion
  
  BULLET::::- Speech and language pathology
  
  Section::::External links.
  
  BULLET::::- Overview at nature.com
  
  BULLET::::- Anatomy and physiology of swallowing at dysphagia.com
  
  BULLET::::- Swallowing animation (flash) at hopkins-gi.org
   Impaction occurs often in bearded dragons when they are fed food that is too big for them. Bearded dragons will try to eat worms or crickets that are too big for them, but this can be extremely harmful. Food should not be bigger than the space between their eyes for a young dragon. Older dragons can generally cope with larger insects but not oversized prey. If a dragon eats food that is too big for it, pressure will be put on its spinal cord during digestion. This pressure can lead to Impaction Which can lead to death.
   Animals with an empty stomach readily vomit after ingestion of this substance. However, when there is food in the stomach of the animals the stimulation to vomit decreases, so more quantities may be absorbed. It has been found that ANTU may cause death in some animals within 2–4 hours of ingestion, while animals that survive 12 hours may recover from the poison. 
   Considerable research has confirmed that chimpanzees self-medicate with "A. aequinoctiale" by swallowing the leaves whole. Not normally a part of the chimpanzee's diet, this behaviour is most often witnessed during rainy seasons, when the animals are most likely to be afflicted with the parasitic nematodes "Oesophagostomum stephanostomum" and other species of parasitic worms. Examination of the faecal matter of chimpanzees shows that the whole-swallowed leaves remain intact, along with multiple expelled worms. In one dung sample, as many as 20 worms were found, along with 50 undigested leaves. The mechanism through which "A. aequinoctiale" causes these worms to be expelled from the primates is not yet fully established, though a common factor in the chimpanzee's whole-leaf swallowing of "A. aequinoctiale" and other plants is the presence of trichomes on the leaves. Trichomes not being easily digestible, the un-chewed and rough surfaces of the leaves are thought to help physically extract the worms from the intestines.
   As this is comparatively recent research (2015), it is possible that other constrictors kill in other ways. It had previously been accepted that constrictors used their body to hold the prey tight and prevent the prey from drawing air into its lungs, resulting in death from asphyxia, or that the pressure of constriction causes a rise in the pressure in the prey's body cavity greater than the heart can counter, resulting in immediate cardiac arrest; data from earlier studies had also indicated that snakes can exert enough pressure for these to be plausible.
   Section::::Usage.
  
  If the prey is on the ground and pinned, most predators position themselves behind the animal to use their body's weight to help control the movements of the prey and reach around to grab the throat, usually twisting the head around, aiding in both their grasp and the blocking of the windpipe.
   The proboscis of the class Anopla ("unarmed") exits from an orifice which is separate from the mouth, coils around the prey and immobilizes it by sticky, toxic secretions. The Anopla can attack as soon as they move into the range of the proboscis. Some Anopla have branched proboscises which can be described as "a mass of sticky spaghetti". The animal then draws its prey into its mouth.
   A wide range of animals will eat anoles, such as large spiders, centipedes, predatory katydids, snakes, large frogs, lizards, birds, monkeys, and carnivoran mammals. At least in part of their range, snakes may be the most significant predator of anoles. For example, the Caribbean "Alsophis" and "Borikenophis" racers, and the Mexican, Central American and South American "Oxybelis" vine snakes feed mostly on lizards like anoles. Some reptile-eating snakes have a specialized venom that has little effect on humans, but it rapidly kills an anole. On some Caribbean Islands anoles make up as much as 40–75% of the diet of American kestrels. Large anoles may eat smaller individuals of other anole species and cannibalism—eating smaller individuals of their own species—is also widespread. There is a documented case of a small anole being captured and killed by an outside potted Venus flytrap plant.
   Section::::Diet.
  
  Their diet consists of berries, any small insects, fruits, vegetables. Phainopepla have a specialized mechanism in their gizzard that shucks berry skins off the fruit and packs the skins separately from the rest of the fruit into the intestines for more efficient digestion. So far this is the only known bird able to do this. They appear to relish the fruit of "Phoradendron californicum", the desert mistletoe.
  
  Section::::Reproduction.
   Although previous studies proposed that Komodo dragon saliva contains a variety of highly septic bacteria that would help to bring down prey, research in 2013 suggested that the bacteria in the mouths of Komodo dragons are ordinary and similar to those found in other carnivores. They actually have surprisingly good mouth hygiene. As Bryan Fry put it: "After they are done feeding, they will spend 10 to 15 minutes lip-licking and rubbing their head in the leaves to clean their mouth ... Unlike people have been led to believe, they do not have chunks of rotting flesh from their meals on their teeth, cultivating bacteria." Nor do Komodo dragons wait for prey to die and track it at a distance, as vipers do; observations of them hunting deer, boar and in some cases buffalo reveal that they kill prey in less than half an hour, using their dentition to cause shock and trauma.
  
raw_presuppositions: Snakes should choke when eating something whole.
raw_corrections: Snakes windpipe opening is close to the front of the mouth and opens with the mouth. 