Reticulated pythons like the ones involved in two attacks in Indonesia this year are among the world’s longest and strongest. Villagers on the island of Sulawesi went searching for a man who never returned from a palm oil fruit harvest in March. Because producing palm oil is so lucrative, plantations have razed giant swaths of rain forest to make room for the cash crop. Most of the world’s palm oil is harvested from two countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, with devastating effects. The palm oil plants are a magnet for rodents and other small animals that feed on the fatty, energy-dense fruit.

Source: Washington Post October 04, 2017 18:05 UTC