the butcher of jalan hang jebat
Jul 11th, 2009 by islandhippy
There is one less amphibian in our garden after this hungry painted bronzeback snake made a meal of the resident tree frog. We couldn't believe such a small (thin, not short) snake could tackle such a large frog and we're not sure if it ever managed to swallow the whole thing. We watched for almost an hour but the sight of dying frog made Sandy hungry so we had to go out to lunch (no she didn't have frog for lunch but only because it wasn't on the menu at Mr Prata — frog prata has yet to catch on).
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- the butcher of jalan hang jebat strikes its prey
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- the butcher appears to be winning the tug-of-war
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- “Let go of the ladder — this is the last time I tackle a tree frog”
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- “Stop snapping photos and get this snake off my butt!”
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- your money has to be on the snake at this point in the fight
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- the frog makes a last grab for the wire-mesh fence
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- “Goodnight my darlings, I’ll see you tomorrow”
sooo cool! next time please call me:)
did it eat the frog competely? cos your foto did not show fully :p
we don’t know whether the snake swallowed the frog because we had to go out for lunch and we couldn’t find snake or frog on our return. the following day we saw another, smaller, painted bronzeback eating yet another tree frog. this new snake looked even less capable of swallowing its lunch; unfortunately it dragged the frog behind a cupboard so we missed the show.
from neighbour Nick (via email):
I think the reason it took so long to eat the frog is because the frog is back to front. Normally they are eaten head first, and thus slide down very easily. The frog is an adult female Tree Frog, based on the size.
i really want to see the frog get eaten by the snake
I’m in Thailand and we saw the same snake in the same instance. The snake was fully capable of finishing the frog once it broke all of the frog’s bones. It took about 15 minutes until the snake got the frog all the way down. It ate it head first which made it much easier to digest I assume. We didn’t think this snake could eat the frog that big, but it managed to do so. When the bronzeback got the frog down, it’s body expanded into bluish scales. It was incredibly beautiful.