I heard a strange scuffling, scrunching sound outside our verandah. Looked over the edge and on the lawn noticed a small 80 cm or so long python inexorably dragging a much larger cane toad back along the grass.
The cane toad appeared stunned and although obviously alive, struggled very little. The python was only about 25-30 mm in diameter and the toad about 60-65 mm. The snake dragged it back about 3 meters to its lair in a rock wall. The cane toad grabbed onto grass and rocks on the way with its front claws but other than did not struggle at all. I was worried that the toad would kill the python once it was ingested, but wasn’t quite willing to tap the python on the nose and say “No”.
It took the python about 25 minutes to get the toad back to its hole in the wall.
It then slowly engulfed the toad – this was repulsive but fascinating.
The snake finally swallowed the whole cane toad – the whole process took over an hour.
How fascinating! I wonder if they python died as a result?
I was worried about that but I wasn’t about to tap the snake on the nose and say “No”!
I haven’t seen any dead pythons and have since seen a similar sized snake that could have been this one (it came from roughly the same area), so hopefully it’s still alive.
The python lives in a rock wall just behind the toilet so we would have smelled it if it died I think.
And it was quite horrible but utterly fascinating.