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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How boa constrictors squeeze and breathe at the same time

A boa avoids suffocation by inflating its lungs with one part of its ribcage and wrapping prey with another.
Red tailed boa constrictor on fallen tree over water.

Boa constrictors have such long ribcages that they can devote one section to breathing and another to digesting large food items. Credit: Lucas Bustamante/Nature Picture Library

Boa constrictors breathe by expanding and collapsing their ribcages, a technique that seems at odds with the snakes’ habit of constricting and swallowing huge meals — both actions that constrain rib movement. Now scientists have explained this conundrum: boas can breathe with one part of their bodies while prey occupies another part1.

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Nature 603, 769 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00833-w

References

  1. Capano, J. G. et al. J. Exp. Biol. 225, jeb243119 (2022).

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