King snake taking care of a copperhead

[farmgirl19]

Really cool photos! Thanks for posting those!

 

[Car Doc]

Wow! Was the toad still alive? Our dogs spit out toads, wonder if it tasted bad to the snake?

Yes it sure was and that was a big garden snake and the toad looked almost hand size. I wondered about whether the snake would spit it out. I have heard toads taste bad to other critters too. I am too soft hearted to watch that play out I got the pics and went back in the shop.

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Love snakes/reptiles...awesome pics ! thanks....man that toad does not look happy...we need to have a caption contest for that pic !

I can just hear the toad saying " Really ?! REALLY ?! "

 

[dmccarty]

Wow! Was the toad still alive? Our dogs spit out toads, wonder if it tasted bad to the snake?

Cane Toads were introduced into FLA, and I think LA, to remove sugar cane pests. The Cane Toads did not remove the sugar cane pest and the toads are now a pest. They can get real big, 6-8 inches wide at least, and they have a poison on their back which kills or sickens many dogs and cats. Here is the really wacky thing about Cane Toads, people will dry the skin, so they can get stoned on the same chemical that poisons cats and dogs. :shocked::confused3: I have heard of people LICKING the back of the Cane Toad to get stoned. :shocked::shocked::shocked:

At least the people getting mushrooms off the bottom of cow scat, boil the shrooms before getting stoned..... :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[PhysAssist]

Great pictures from both of you guys!

I have always liked snakes and caught (and returned) many since I was too young to know better, but I have never seen them do that.

We did once in the spring see a big (> softball, <volleyball) ball of garter snakes writhing in our front yard on some sunwarmed stones one AM? They were all different sizes, and eventually all drifted away, it was apparently something called a mating ball (google it if'n you don't believe it).

We live near the only home of pygmy missaugua rattlesnakes in the Bergen Swamp, but have not seen any, likely because of the numerous banded kingsnakes and corn snakes we see often.

My wife's whole family is terrified by snakes, but I got her used to them here by bringing her the littlest baby snakes, and knew it had worked when she brought one into the BR to show me.

We also converted all her nieces and nephews by similar means, and the they tease their parents about their phobia now.

Kingsnakes are resistant to bites from venomous snakes (except from the bite trauma, of course).

In my reading, almost all snakes will prey on toads and frogs without being bothered by the toad's toxins, but the poison from those cane toads kills any snakes that eat them.

Our St. Bernard was infamous for catching toads and carrying them around in his mouth for a few minutes, until he started drooling (as if his normal sploogie drooling wasn't copiously bad enough), and shaking his head enough that he developed hematomas once that had to be drained. He never learnt.

Thomas

 

[woodchuckc]

Cool pics of the toad-eating snake, Car Doc! Most, if not all, snakes can "unhinge" their jaws to allow them to eat things of much larger diameter than their normal mouth opening. It sure makes them look strange when they have a big bulge partway down their slender body. We have several water snakes living in my ponds, and a couple of times I have seen them with a flattened bulge where I assume they caught and ate some small bluegill or crappie.

 

[Car Doc]

You too Woodchuckc loved yours! And I am sorry to barge in on your thread like that we had such similar photos I couldn't resist.

 

[flamom]

I have read that king snakes like to make a meal of poisonous snakes like copperheads, but have never witnessed it in person until this past Friday. I was putting my dog in her pen (about 20 yards behind the house) Friday evening when I saw what looked like a balled up black snake near her pen - I just assumed that the dog had found it earlier and killed it. I walked over to it and this is what I saw:



Close up:



Thanks for pic and lesson about King snakes!

:thumbsup:

 

[ArmyPair2]

I always get a kick out watching my wife screaming snake snake snake at the top of her lungs when she is working around the house outside. Every time but once it was a black snake which are harmless around here but once there was a rattlesnake that I dealt with real quick. When I see rattlesnakes working in my wood piles I just leave them alone and when I check my trail cams there are times I have ran into copperheads near my creeks.

Those photo's from both folks that posted was way to cool and I think the snakes my wife always have a habit to encounter were black racer snakes because those sucker are really fast.

 

[KubotainNH]

Cool pictures. That copperhead meal should last awhile.