

Ian Hamilton

Just about every newspaper in Australia appears to be showing these photographs of a frog eating a snake, photographed by Ian Hamilton near North Mackay in Queensland. Earthfirst calls it a "bizarre food chain twist"; Ian Hamilton told the Sunshine Coast Daily:

"We have seen snakes eating frogs here but not the other way around. We have actually saved frogs a couple of times because they make quite a noise when the snakes are getting them. But don't ask me how on earth that frog swallowed that snake."

He said took about fifteen minutes to eat the whole thing.

In the Daily Mercury, Australian Wildlife Rescue Service volunteer Fay Paterson said that the snake was a common keelback snake, a non-venomous species that was renowned for its ability to successfully prey on cane toads, so this seems like an appropriate turning of the tables.

A veterinary surgeon came up with a different identification, saying that it appeared to be a brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis. He told the Mercury:

"That type of snake usually eats birds.

"But in the food chain anything can happen as long as you are bigger than the bloke you are eating," he said. "It is just a measure of what can happen out there in the wild."



See a slideshow of the frog eating the snake at Cairns.com.