‘Amazing’ ‘Never Seen Before’ Snake Encounter by Seasoned Catcher

A seasoned snake hunter says the “incredible” moment when a snake eats another of the same species is one he has never encountered.

Video of the intense encounter was captured by hiker Bryan West, who said he was shocked when he came across two snakes fighting before “the big guy gobbled up the smaller one.”

The Queenslander was returning from the summit of Pages Pinnacle in the Gold Coast hinterland when he came across this remarkable scene.

“I was almost back at the car park when I noticed movement in front of me,” he told Yahoo News Australia. “When I saw it was two snakes, I decided to record it.”

In the video shared with Yahoo, a large snake can be seen with its mouth closed on the body of a smaller snake. “I was surprised to see two fights of the same type and I was curious to see how it would end,” the 54-year-old explained. “It looked for a while like the little one might carry it.”

But unfortunately this was not the case and the bigger snake was ultimately victorious.

“It’s so amazing to see,” says the snake catcher

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Queensland snake catcher Luke Huntley said the incident was “very unusual”.

“Over the course of my career, I’ve had many calls where people said, ‘Hey, a red belly is eating this brown snake,’ or ‘I have a brown snake eating a red belly,’ but I didn’t never had a yellow-faced whip snake eat another yellow-faced whip snake,” he said.

“I’ve never seen that before, so it’s amazing to see to be honest. It’s really unbelievable.”

The Snatch Catcher Noosa 24/7 representative said the reptiles usually cohabit very happily with each other.

“Sometimes cannibalism occurs. It’s just something that happens with reptiles, and it happens with other species, but I think with this particular snake it’s definitely rarer than with some species, especially red bellies.

Why did the snake eat its mate?

Huntley said it was virtually impossible to determine exactly why the snake turned on the other yellow-faced whiptail, which is a very common, mildly venomous, very shy and elusive snake.

“There could be any number of reasons why the snake would eat the other snake,” he explained. “It could have been because it was a quick and easy meal, or he was really, really out of food.”

Right now, snakes across Australia are practicing what’s called brumation, which is akin to hibernation except without a long sleep.

“It basically means that their metabolism slows down and they will sleep on cold days, and on warm days, when there is some sun, they will come out and maybe have an opportunistic meal as well,” Huntley explained.

“And maybe that’s what happened.” Maybe he just went out, saw an opportunity and grabbed the meal, before disappearing.

Huntley even suggested that cannibalism might occur more often than we think.

“For the most part, they are very shy and their main diet is the little smelly garden,” he explains.

“It’s a very, very elusive snake, so if they do it, it’ll be in the undergrowth, and you won’t see it happen.”

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