Predator and Prey

c) Andrew Carter, 2021

Behold the gopher snake. Non-venomous. It looks harmless, doesn’t it?

Not if you are a bird.

I was walking along the trail when I saw something roll down the embankment to the right of the trail. Immediately, I knew it was a snake because the sun highlighted its coils as it fell. But why would a snake be rolling down an embankment instead of slithering down?

When I got to the snake, I saw that it was wrapped around something. My first thought was it was wrapped around another snake and the two snakes were mating. Wrong!

I quickly realized the snake was wrapped around a bird. I then thought, can I save the bird? No, the bird was already dead and the snake already had it’s mouth over the bird’s head. Besides, it wasn’t my “job” to save the bird. Even if the bird were alive, I shouldn’t interfere with nature in action.

For the next five minutes, I watched the snake begin to devour the bird. First, it was able to rip off the bird’s head and swallow it. Then it kept squeezing and re-squeezing the bird like a toothpaste tube to cause its innards to be forced up the bird’s neck into the snake’s body. Yes, gross and disgusting, but utterly fascinating.

For whatever reason, I only took two photos and didn’t turn on my video camera. In part, I think it was because I felt I was an intruder in this example of nature in action, of the “circle of life.” That this was between the snake and the bird, predator and prey. That this was in a way a sacred act I shouldn’t be watching.

As I watched, however, I wondered if the snake would be able to devour the entire bird. Would it eat its wings and tails? What would happen to the feathers and bones? And what about the beak already in the snake’s throat? Would the non-digestible parts be vomited out by the snake or excreted? A snake does have an anus, doesn’t it? Somewhere along its belly, right? How long would it take the snake to digest the bird? While it digested the bird, would the snake be so immobile that it would be at risk of becoming prey itself to a fox or some other animal?

Eventually I left, but not before capturing the two images below. They are clearly the most unique photos I’ve taken in my life. Simply because I got “lucky.” I was, as they say, in the right place at the right time.