The ғʀɪɢʜᴛᴇɴing photos were captured by a kayaker in Queensland, Aᴜsᴛʀᴀʟɪᴀ as he was investigating a marsh.
On a recent trip to Queensland’s Mount Isa, kayaker Martin Muller witnessed a horrible sight: an olive python consuming an Aᴜsᴛʀᴀʟɪᴀn freshwater crocodile that it had just ᴋɪʟʟed by strangling it. Naturally, Muller picked out his camera and started snapping shots.
The photographs were posted online by the Aᴜsᴛʀᴀʟɪᴀn nonprofit group GG Wildlife Rescue Inc. and show the snake around the helpless crocodile. In a few shots where it appeared as though the crocodile’s spiked tail had completely vanished inside the snake’s throat, viewers who pay ᴄʟᴏsᴇ attention can see it poking out of the python’s mouth. Among the other ᴛᴇʀʀɪғʏing images are those of the post-meal engorged python, which has its body stretched out to accommodate the crocodile’s body.
According to Stephanie Pappas of Live Science, pythons aren’t exactly known for having affluent tastes. The snakes are determined predators and have been seen devouring a wide range of food, including deer, impalas, porcupines, pigeons, goats, other pythons, and even humans.
Contrary to popular belief, pythons do not remove their jaws in order to eat huge prey. According to Corey Binns in a previous Live Science article, snakes employ two lower jaws that move independently of one another but are connected by an elastic ligament. After wrapping a victim in its stretched jaws, a python contracts its muscles to simultaneously constrict and eat prey.
The python’s feast is finished with digestion stage. After feeding, the animals are known to alter their metabolism and enlarge internal organs like the intestines, heart, and pancreas to accommodate the sudden influx of calories. Even though they consume all of the bones, ᴍᴇᴀᴛ, and organs of their prey, snakes nevertheless excrete body parts like scales and teeth that are rich in keratin and enamel.
