(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-14 17:06

BEIJING -- Fluffy, a gigantic python thought to be the world's longest captive snake, will be on permanent display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, US, media reported Monday.

Fluffy, a gigantic python thought to be the world's longest captive snake, will be on permanent display at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. [Xinhua]

The 7.3-meter reticulated python is about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.

The zoo bought Fluffy for 35,000 US dollars from its breeder in Oklahoma, which raised the python from a hatchling.

While on loan last year, the snake wowed zoo visitors and helped make last year's 1.53 million attendance the second highest on record, said Pete Fingerhut, the zoo's associate director. The biggest year was 2006, with 1.56 million visitors.

Fluffy is on display in a some 8-meter enclosure with a pool and a few plants, where he eats two huge rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and lizards when they're small and graduating to pigs and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.

The largest known reticulated python was 10 meters when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.