Snake catcher shares 'coolest photo' of Aussie animal duo
The Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers shared the image of the 'beautiful' large python sitting next to a goanna to the company’s Facebook on Sunday.
A “truly amazing” photo of two “Aussie mates” basking in the sun side-by-side has shocked many after being shared online by a popular snake catcher.
Stuart McKenzie with the Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers posted the image of the “beautiful” large python with a full belly cosying up to a goanna to the company’s Facebook on Sunday, describing it as “still one of the coolest photo’s that has ever been sent to us by our amazing followers”.
The striking pairing also stunned others, attracting hundreds of comments from Aussies in awe of the “odd couple”. “That’s awesome,” one person said, while another joked “They must have had a wild Saturday night!”.
“Both just raided the chicken coop like ‘Yeah, that’s what’s up’,” someone else wrote.
While many people said the pair appeared to be friends, others claimed the “python is definitely sizing up the goanna as a next meal”. “Is that normal for a snake and goanna to hang out together?” another person pondered.
Pythons and goannas can peacefully coexist
Seeing a “coastal carpet python and adult lace monitor basking side-by-side” is not common, but peaceful interactions between snakes and lizards do occur, Operations Manager at the Australian Reptile Park, Billy Collett, told Yahoo in September after a woman named Saskia posted a series of photos of a python and tree goanna — possibly the same pair — lying together on her verandah in Nimbin, in northern NSW.
“I’ve seen two diamond pythons on the same roof as a lace monitor… and red bellies and long-neck turtles. I think people would be surprised at how often this would actually happen in the wild,” Billy said, adding their chances of eating each other are slim given their size.
“That’s a decent sized snake for the lace monitor to have a crack at.”
Saskia told Yahoo last year it was the second time she had seen the snake and goanna gather at her home after emerging from brumation. “They hung out for about two weeks together and even slept very close to each other,” she said of their first meeting in 2022.
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