Rare 'feeding feast' spotted in rural town stuns: 'Quite cool to see'
Snake catcher Mathew Hampton said 'you don't see it very often'.
One step out into the great outdoors and you'll see an array of stunning wildlife, from kangaroos to lizards and snakes and birds and even the most unusual bugs and insects.
But regardless of where you're situated in Australia, there's one sight that's rarely spotted — and that's a group of lace monitors, or goannas, which are known to be solitary.
So when snake catcher Mathew Hampton spotted not one but four giant reptiles in a rural Queensland town, he had to stop and watch — and he did for over an hour, he told Yahoo News Australia.
"It was quite cool to see. I've never seen it before," Hampton, a wildlife expert, said on Saturday, almost a week after witnessing the amazing scenes. "You don't see it very often because they're normally solitary animals except for when they're breeding. They're not seen very often in larger numbers."
Lizards attracted to scent of kangaroo
Hampton shared a video on his Instagram page where he regularly posts a selection of native wildlife clips. In it, one mammoth lizard can be seen feeding on a deceased kangaroo while three others are watching closely from a nearby tree.
"The kangaroo got hit by a car and it was on the side of the road. The crows and other animals started getting into it and the scent attracted several lace monitors," Hampton explained.
Bigger reptiles scare off the smaller ones
Hampton was driving through Stamford at the time, a small rural town and locality in the Shire of Flinders.
"When I pulled up I noticed the big one eating and the three smaller ones were sitting in the tree waiting for it to finish," he said. "Basically, the biggest one is the most dominant so he'll chase away the other ones away until he's full".
"I watched it for like an hour," Hampton admitted. "The bigger one ate quite a lot, and then as he left, the one you can see climbing up the tree came down and they all started competing over it. "
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