Blueswami

   

• Fungi, postcards and sex
• Fungi involved in mass extinction
• Open wide
• Wiggle stereoscopy
• Fitzroy Graffiti
• Nature articles
• Drop Bears
• Family History
• Interesting Science
• The peasant art of great Russia
• Stories
• There is no god
• How to write good
• The great PMR swindle
• The Hackers Handbook
• Hamilton Naki
• German
• Averages
• Marcuse

Diamond python eats rabbit

 

Two very closely related sub specis of python are found in Sydney bushland - diamond pythons - Morelia spilota spilota and carpet snakes - Morelia spilota variegata.

Both are practically harmless, but have quite different temperaments. The smaller carpet snakes are much crankier, and don't like being handled. Adults usually grow no more than two metres, but some have been recorded at 2.5 metres.

The color pattern consists of a beige or brown ground color overlaid with blackish or gray blotches, cross-bands or stripes, or a combination of any of these. Regional color variations can include bright yellow, gold, rust and clear grays.

Diamond pythons can reach a length of four metres, and their markings are, as the name suggests, distinctively diamond shaped. They are very docile, especially just after a meal.

In Queensland and northen NSW the two sub-species can and do hybridise.

Also living in Sydney bushland are rabbits. Lots of rabbits. The rabbits are increasing in number because their only real enemy - foxes - are being poisoned in an effort to stop them from eating native animals. The eradication program for foxes has worked so well that the rabbits are now breeding like, well, rabbits.

Diamond pythons usually eat birds eggs, small birds, mice, and other small animals. Occasionally they will tackle something bigger, such as a ringtail possum, or something rather disproprtionate to their own size, like a large well fed rabbit.

This sequence of pictures show how a 1.5 metre long diamond python did some jawdropping gymnastics to get a large rabbit down its throat. The sequence was filmed over the space of half an hour in Turramurra in Sydney's northern suburbs by Nick Korfiatis in March 2011.

The python was returned to nearby bushland by a Wildlife Rescue representative. All he had to do was pick the snake up, carefully supporting its somewhat bloated belly, carry it to nearby bushland, and lay it down in a quiet warm spot where it could digest its feats in peace. The python didn't even blink an eyelid at all the attention.