Lack of data on rock pythons was the terminal heartbreaker

Indian rock python.  Python molurus is a non-venomous python species.

The heart of the African Rock Python enlarges when it swallows an animal, like a whole gazelle, but later contracts to the normal size, and the gazelle lives to swallow another day. That is unlike human beings for who an enlarged heart means death.

Prof Matilu Mwau planned to study the human cardiovascular system using the African Rock Python. He wrote a research proposal whose funding was even approved in 2018. But the research was later dropped due to lack of data,  including lack of statistics on the number of African Rock Pythons in Kenya besides prior preliminary research on the reptiles.