When wildlife officers in Georgia stumbled upon a pair of seemingly lifeless snakes that had been vomited up by one other, bigger snake, they had been already shocked by what that they had discovered. However issues took a good weirder twist when one of many regurgitated serpents abruptly awoke and slithered off.
Wildlife technicians from Georgia’s Division of Pure Assets (DNR) got here throughout the weird scene in November 2023 whereas surveying federally protected jap indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi) in southern Georgia, in line with a DNR Fb publish written on Aug. 29.
The group discovered a stay 4-foot-long (1.2 meters) indigo snake alongside two different snakes — a “younger rat snake” and a juvenile jap diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) — that had each “clearly [been] swallowed after which expelled” by the bigger snake, DNR representatives wrote.
Associated: The most important snake on the planet (and 10 different large serpents)
Whereas the rat snake didn’t survive being eaten, the regurgitated rattlesnake finally confirmed indicators of life round an hour after it was discovered, and it did not appear to be notably bothered by the ordeal. “It was later seen basking within the solar as a substitute of taking shelter in a burrow,” DNR representatives wrote.
If that wasn’t odd sufficient, the wildlife specialists quickly realized that the rattlesnake additionally had a big bulge in its midsection, suggesting it had not too long ago swallowed a mouse entire.
“This uncommon episode not solely reveals the indigo’s spectacular searching skills but additionally the rattlesnake’s sudden resilience,” DNR representatives wrote.
Snakes consuming each other entire is nothing new, and the scale of the meal is never an impediment.
For instance, in June 2022, a Georgia resident filmed an jap kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) slowly consuming a a lot bigger timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). A examine launched in August this yr additionally documented an incident the place a Burmese python (Python bivittatus) swallowed a bigger reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) from the tail up.
Nonetheless, consuming such large prey additionally comes with dangers, comparable to choking.
In February 2022, a rim rock topped snake (Tantilla oolitica) was discovered useless in Florida after choking on a centipede, which was nonetheless lodged in its mouth when it was found. And in September final yr, a herpetologist in France stepped in to save lots of a viperine snake (Natrix maura) that was choking on an invasive fish.
Within the current case, the indigo snake might have been making an attempt to keep away from the same destiny when it expelled its two victims. Nonetheless, it is usually potential that it voluntarily surrendered its meal to flee a predator or as a result of it was wired by the close by wildlife specialists searching for it.