{"id":104414,"date":"2025-10-28T02:08:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104414\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T02:08:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:08:06","slug":"huge-python-grabs-spotlight-during-rare-encounter-in-australian-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104414\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge python grabs spotlight during rare encounter in Australian park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A wildlife ecologist in South Australia\u2019s Gawler Ranges National Park recently documented a rare encounter with a massive carpet python that slithered across the open landscape.<\/p>\n<p>Tali Moyle\u2019s sighting was featured via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DPn3bAXAazA\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> by National Parks and Wildlife SA, with a photo and video, and an assurance that the reptile was not harmed:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We recommend always maintaining a respectful distance when observing animals in their natural habitat. This footage was captured by a local ecologist with specialist expertise in wildlife care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gawler Ranges National Park, famous for its spectacular rock formations, is on the northern portion of the Eyre Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p>Southwestern carpet pythons generally prefer coastal, woodland, or grassland habitats. Encounters in Gawler Ranges National Park are rare and Moyle\u2019s footage impressed social-media followers. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DPn3bAXAazA\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to view Moyle&#8217;s footage.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ftw.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/outdoors\/2025\/09\/22\/massive-snake-python-peers-into-home-eerie-scene-australia\/86293250007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RELATED: Giant snake emerges from tree, dinosaur-like, near home in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The top Instagram comment: \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful, but I fear my soul would leave my body if I saw it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Carpet pythons are nonvenomous and can measure to about 10 feet. They prey mostly on small reptiles, birds, and mammals, including wallabies and other marsupials.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wildlife ecologist in South Australia\u2019s Gawler Ranges National Park recently documented a rare encounter with a massive&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[441,9540,85,9541,5144,1647,5925,9539,6423,75712,273,1604,9544,30407,440,42157,111,43,139,69,428,2996,9224,2989,34639,34640,5914,75711,6647,9545,147,9542,9538,1072,38,274,431,406],"class_list":["post-104414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-affiliate","tag-amphibians","tag-australia","tag-biological","tag-biological-sciences","tag-breaking","tag-breaking-news-social","tag-content","tag-ecology","tag-ecology-u0026-environment","tag-environment","tag-evergreen","tag-evergreen-content","tag-gardens","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-travel","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-parks","tag-positive","tag-pythons","tag-pythons-snakes","tag-regional","tag-regional-parks-u0026-gardens","tag-reptiles","tag-reptiles-u0026-amphibians","tag-science","tag-sciences","tag-snakes","tag-social","tag-top-stories","tag-travel","tag-u0026","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}