Terrifying footage of a snake devouring its supper has shocked and horrified Aussies, however an expert snake catcher warns that it’s an almost “daily occurrence”.
The coastal carpet python was filmed gobbling up a possum on a property on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but it wasn’t simply the dimensions of the meal that shocked viewers.
The snake was having a chew whereas the other way up and pulling its prey into the rafters of a storage.
“Coastal carpet pythons have a lot of sharp teeth, a lot of strength and a very good ability of swallowing things whole,” Stuart McKenzie from Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7 told Yahoo News Australia.
With the snake’s mouth stretched impossibly extensive over the possum’s physique — with simply its again legs and tail protruding — you’ve acquired to surprise if the python will get caught.
“It’s very unlikely,” McKenzie mentioned. “Like I’ve seen it happen before but it’s extremely unlikely. That possum wasn’t stuck and the snake was doing a good job of swallowing it.”
‘It’s a every day incidence’
While nearly all of the web was shocked by the incident, the snake catcher mentioned “this is a daily occurrence at the moment”.
“We are out of breeding season, in the middle of summer, so this is the time where snakes are looking to get a big feed,” McKenzie defined. “It’s happening nearly daily, like snakes entering chicken coops or eating possums or getting into bird aviaries.”
And as for this distinctive approach of taking part in along with your meals the other way up?
“When snakes have got a big food item like that and they’re not on the ground, that’s when they kind of have to try and swallow upside down,” the professional added, “which can be difficult, but yeah, it’s pretty amazing.”
McKenzie suggested residents to ensure their garages had been sealed and yards cleaned in an effort to cease snakes from stopping in for a meal.
But some mentioned they might welcome the pest controller. “I need this guy at my place, bloody possums always get in my roof,” one person mentioned. “A fantastic video showing nature at its best,” one other praised. “Very educational for those who don’t live with snakes in their backyards.”
Yet others weren’t too positive. “That is a hell of a nope for me… poor possum and yet I couldn’t look away,” somebody wrote. “[It’s] pretty amazing what the snakes can do and devour and the way their bodies adapt to the animal they eat.” While one other added: “[It] still amazes me how a snake can digest something that huge.”
Snake compelled to surrender its feed
While this coastal carpet python seemed prefer it was having no bother taking up the possum, a scrub python was lately compelled to desert its meal after it acquired caught making an attempt to swallow an agile wallaby.
In a series of photos taken on a property in Townsville, the reptile can be seen attempting to demolish the marsupial, before it called it a day.
“It essentially just gave up when it realised it was too big of a prey item,” Jeremy De Haan from Jeremy’s Reptile Relocations Townsville instructed Yahoo.
“Because if it did manage to successfully get it down, there is a chance that that prey item was just too big to digest and it could have resulted in the death of the python.”
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