Video: Watch massive African python swallow baby impala whole

The footage was taken by Worcestershire tourists Caron and Mark Steele while on a game drive through the Masai Mara Nature Reserve

It is very rare for a python to eat a baby impala in the wild (Newsflare)

Incredible footage has emerged that shows the moment a 12-foot python swallows a baby impala in nature reserve in Kenya.

In the video filmed at the Masai Mara Nature Reserve by Worcestershire tourists Caron and Mark Steele last Friday, we see the body of the python expand to four times its natural size as it forces the baby impala down its digestive tract.

Throughout, the guide can be heard explaining to the tourists how the snake is able to use its saliva to make the body of the animal soft so that it is easier to swallow.

Once the impala is digested, the python’s digestive system would have gone into overdrive, with its internal organs expanding and a strong enzyme used to breakdown the prey being released in high quantities.

Video courtesy of Newsflare

She told The Daily Mail: 'This will probably never be witnessed again by tourists in our lifetime. Amazingly, you never see snakes in Africa.

'When you go on safari, you are in some of the most remote parts of the world so it's easy for snakes to avoid people - which they like to do.

It is extremely unlikely to find a python attempting to eat prey like impalas impala, due to the mammals usually being too fast for the slow moving snakes to catch.

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It is believed that the unfortunate impala was lying on the ground and did not see the python as it attacked.

Instead, pythons usually attack smaller animals such as squirrels that are far easier to digest.

However, with great effort comes a great reward, and the fact that the impala is so big means that the snake will not have to eat for a number of months.