January 28, 2009

You are what you eat ??

Hungry snake discovers you are what you eat


Posted Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:34pm AEDT Updated Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:44pm AEDT
Slideshow: Photo 1 of 3
The brown snake begins to remove itself from the red belly black snake. (User submitted: Tony Barton)


A New South Wales man has had an interesting encounter with not one but two snakes, and he has the photos to prove it.
Tony Barton from South Gundagai says he and his wife had just been out for lunch about a month ago when they returned home and spotted a black snake alongside the car.
It turned out to be a red belly black snake about 165 centimetres long - a species well known for a taste for other snakes.
"It looked like there was a stick or branch off a tree that was coming up towards it, so we drove past to about get 10 metres away from it and I ducked up the back lawn and around to have a close look," he said.
Mr Barton says his wife called out to him to ask him what he was staring at.
He yelled back, "Well, it's a jolly big black snake eating another one! Consuming it! You keep an eye on it and I'll duck in and get the camera."
Mr Barton says it took about 10 to 15 minutes for the black snake to fully consume the brown snake, which he says was about 135 centimetres long.
Then it went off for a snooze.
"It was fairly sluggish after such a huge meal," he said.
Regurgitator
Initially, Mr Barton thought someone had killed the snake and it was all a practical joke.
He says when the black snake finished eating the brown snake, something irritated the black and it moved off to try to get a bit of relief from the discomfort.
Not long after, the snake returned - this time to the back lawn.
"I walked up and got within three metres of it," he said.
"I was having a close look at it when it opened its mouth a little bit and I spotted this beady eye and the head of the brown snake in its mouth!
"So I got the camera ready, took the shot as the brown snake came out a few inches, fastened onto the black's lower jaw and pulled itself completely out.
"It had all this mucus all over it. Then the two parted ways."
Mr Barton reckons that somehow the brown snake turned itself around inside the black snake.
"When you tell these stories no-one believes you, but I have the photographs," he said.


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/27/2475461.htm

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