But because of stretchy pores and skin between its left and proper decrease jawbones, the Gans’ egg-eater has the flexibility to devour eggs many instances bigger than its head.
“They can consume prey three to four times bigger than snakes that are generalists such as the black rat snake,” Jayne mentioned.
The egg-eater consumes the egg entire and contorts its backbone to crack it, releasing the gooey contents, earlier than regurgitating the empty, damaged shell. Rat snakes, in contrast, sometimes digest the egg, shell and all.
Burmese pythons are not any slouches in the case of consuming massive meals. In earlier research, Jayne discovered that grownup pythons can devour deer weighing greater than 70 kilos and alligators 100 kilos or extra. Still, the little egg eater can devour prey with a cross-sectional space greater than twice that of a Burmese python of comparable weight.
Others such because the rat snake, queen snake, brown tree snake and western diamondback rattlesnake don’t even come near the egg-eater.