Red-bellied black snakes are known for their venomous bites, but recently, a snake catcher in the Gold Coast of Australia had an experience that was not only unique, but also quite shocking.
Mitch Thorburn from South East Reptile Relocations was called to remove a red-bellied black snake from a local yard, but what he found was not what he had expected. The snake was carrying a consumed baby eastern brown snake in its mouth.
“There’s not too much that surprises me anymore, but this was a little bit of a shock,” he told Yahoo! News Australia. “The way the head poked out of the other snake’s mouth is new to me. It’s the first time that I’ve caught a snake, and then another snake has poked its head out.”
When Mitch approached the snake, he could tell that it had recently eaten, but he never thought it would regurgitate its meal and the head of the smaller snake would poke out of its mouth.
“Only once I got it out in the open the head popped out,” he said. “I had to look at it for a few seconds just to confirm that it was actually a snake sticking out of another snake’s mouth.”
This was a first-time experience for Mitch and even the homeowners who were present were taken aback by the situation.
“There’s only one?” a woman in the video says.
“No, it’s eating a baby one,” a man responds.
“Baby? There are two?” she said.
“Yeah it’s eating a baby brown,” he said.
“I knew it, there is another one,” she said.
“No, but it’s in its mouth,” he said.
In the video, one can see the flicking of the tongue of the smaller snake even though it was mostly consumed by the larger snake.
Mitch believes that the red-belly had finished consuming the eastern brown and was resting when he arrived to remove it. Unaware of its recent meal, he pulled the snake by its tail, and that’s when the head of the smaller snake popped out.
He was taken aback by the sight and had to look at it for a few seconds to confirm what he was seeing. When he opened the bag to release the snakes, the smaller snake was no longer visible, leading him to believe it had been consumed.
The video has since been shared on Facebook, and people have been reacting with a mix of awe and shock. Some have never seen anything like it, and others are simply unable to deal with the wild footage.
“Get a load of this,” one person exclaimed.
“Never have I seen this, pretty awesome to watch but,” someone else said.
Others were shocked by the video, commenting, “I can’t deal with this.”