Passage II

In the python (Python molurus), a species of snake, organ mass and metabolic rate may decrease between meals, conserving energy. Figure 1 shows, for a group of juvenile pythons (Group V), the average mass of the small intestine before and after each python ingested a single meal that had a mass equal to 25% of the python’s body mass. Figure 2 shows, for 4 groups of juvenile pythons (Groups W−Z), the average oxygen consumption rate, in milliliters of oxygen consumed per gram of body mass per hour (mL/g/hr), before and after each python ingested a single meal. Table 1 shows the relative mass of the meal ingested by the pythons in each group.