Bryan West was on the return trek from Pages Pinnacle in Queensland’s Springbrook National Park when he came across an unusual sight—snake cannibalism in progress. Two yellow-faced whip snakes were battling it out, and in the end, as West told Yahoo News Australia, “[the] big fella gobbled up the smaller fella.”
While it’s not that uncommon to see a snake eating another snake, what is uncommon is witnessing a snake eating a snake of the same species.
“I was surprised to see two of the same type [of snake] fighting and I was curious to see how it would end,” West said. “It appeared for a while like the little one might prevail.”
In the video, you can see the two snakes wrestle around in the dirt as West records. While it would have been nice to report an underdog story (and West says the small yellow-faced whip snake put up a good fight), the larger snake won.
Watch snake cannibalism in progress here:
Queensland snake catcher Luke Huntley told Yahoo News Australia that it’s rare to see such cannibalism. “In my career, I’ve had plenty of calls where people say, ‘Hey, a red belly is eating this brown snake’, or ‘I’ve got a brown snake eating a red belly’, but I’ve never had a yellow-faced whip snake eating another yellow-faced whip snake,” he said.
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