Venomous Aussie snake caught consuming water dragon in wild scene
The snake catcher had to relocate the eastern brown while it still had a water dragon in its mouth.
It's well and truly snake season and despite the majority of people eager to dodge the animals over the summer, one recent wildlife spectacle forced bystanders to simply stop, watch and wait.
One resident found a highly venomous eastern brown snake in her backyard and called a catcher with hopes the snake would be relocated swiftly. However on arrival at the Bundamba home — situated in Ipswich, Queensland — Brandon Wilkinson found the snake a little preoccupied.
"A brown snake was out in the open in between two bits of grass and it was curled around this water dragon," he told Yahoo News Australia. "When I first got there they were still having a bit of a tussle, it wasn't clear if it was going to get away. But eventually the snake's venom and persistence paid off and it managed to subdue the water dragon."
Snake catcher had to 'bag them both together'
After 45 minutes of waiting patiently and watching the two reptiles fight it out before the snake was "victorious", Wilkinson had to hurry the process along — fearing others residents in need of his assistance had been waiting for too long.
"I wanted to try and let the snake consume the lizard before I caught it, I didn't want to make the snake waste all that energy and perseverance for nothing," he said. "But I didn't have much choice, I had to bag them both up together."
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Wilkinson said this happens "from time to time" but "interesting enough" the water dragon was still in the snake's mouth long after he relocated the snake.
"When you dispose of them usually whatever they have in their mouth they let go of. But obviously this snake was quite determined to eat that lizard," he said.
Half consumed lizard made it 'safer' to relocate snake
Despite the eastern brown being "flighty" and "thrashing around a bit" the fact that it's mouth was temporarily incapacitated allowed the snake catcher to handle it safely, with the likelihood of being bitten minimised drastically.
"It actually makes the job a lot easier when their mouth is full. Snakes have recurve teeth, their teeth face backwards, so they can't really let go in an instant... It's pretty safe to work with them then," he said. "They are very defensive because they're vulnerable, but really all they can do is thrash their body about a little bit."
The snake catcher relocated the snake into long grass which provided shelter so it could finish off its meal in peace.
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