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Hungry Grass Snake
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SteveGB View Drop Down
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Joined: 22 Aug 2012
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    Posted: 22 Aug 2012 at 2:46pm
I am allways on the look out for snakes and slow worms when out and about as I find them fascinating. Sadly, other than just one grass snake in the New Forest some years ago, I never seem to see any. I think I must be looking in all the wrong places.
I was therefore quite envious when a friend posted the picture below on Facebook of a grass snake which he claims to have taken on his lawn near Ilkeston, Derbyshire. Although it seems to me that the sanke has bitten off more than he can chew, a subsequent Facebook post reported that he had nearly finished his meal and that only the toad's legs were visible!
 
 
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SteveGB View Drop Down
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Points: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveGB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Aug 2012 at 4:43pm
Sorry guys - seems I didn't insert the picture correctly. Any advice on how best to do this would be gratefully received.
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SteveGB View Drop Down
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Points: 9 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveGB Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Aug 2012 at 10:32pm
Image below I hope: -
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Chris Monk View Drop Down
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uploads/247/Grass_snake_eating_toad_photo2.jpg
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Points: 1447 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Sep 2012 at 11:51pm
It always looks impossible when you see a photo like this of a snake eating something so obviously a real mouthful, but they seem to finish their meal eventually. It would be interesting to know if they would never start something they couldn't manage as I think they can't stop once they've started eating. Am I correct?
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Matt Harris View Drop Down
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Points: 233 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Matt Harris Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Sep 2012 at 1:11pm
Originally posted by Suzy Suzy wrote:

It always looks impossible when you see a photo like this of a snake eating something so obviously a real mouthful, but they seem to finish their meal eventually. It would be interesting to know if they would never start something they couldn't manage as I think they can't stop once they've started eating. Am I correct?



In my experience snakes are pretty good at judging whether or not a prey item is too big, and will not normally tackle them if this is the case. I'm not sure that snakes CANT stop eating once they start, though like any of us, they are reluctant to do so! I think on the rare occasion that they might attack something too big, there's no anatomical reason why they couldn't stop and admit defeat.
Local Authority Ecologist
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tim-f View Drop Down
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Points: 208 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tim-f Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Sep 2012 at 8:01pm
A couple of months ago I saw a Cormorant with a flat fish that was clearly way too big for it to swallow.  It persevered gamely, despite the inevitable conclusion.  A few minutes later the fish was a bulge in the bird's crop.
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Points: 1447 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Sep 2012 at 8:21pm
Tim I've watched great crested grebes on Slapton Ley, south Devon, catch a fish that looks too big for them, and then seem to spend agonising minutes swallowing it. Sometimes they freeze mid-meal as if they've thought better of it BUT I've never seen one give up. 
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Robert V View Drop Down
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Points: 1264 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robert V Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2012 at 7:41pm

Once the air is expelled from the Toad it will be so much smaller that it will be no problem for the Grassie here. Unfortunately, the toad has been taken head first which is not the way Grassies normally approach the task.

Apparently there is a record of a Grassie in Romania taking a marsh frog and bursting during the digestive process. Whther this was because the snake was handled or if it had happened naturally, wasn't recorded.
 
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