I saw this today on Field and Stream – Video: Kingsnake Eats Large Rattlesnake by “Folding” It Before Swallowing: https://www.fieldandstream.com/conservation/kingsnake-eats-large-rattlesnake/ Longer article with video (35 seconds long) in the Facebook link.
BY STEVEN HILL June 14, 2022
The Georgia DNR recently shared this epic wildlife video and noted that “it’s a snake eat snake world out there”
A video recently posted on Facebook by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GDNR) is a good reminder that Mother Nature can throw a mean curveball. The short clip, credited to Tom Slagle of Haddock, Georgia, shows a kingsnake chowing down on a timber rattler much larger than itself.
“Big critters eat little critters” is a basic building block of food webs worldwide. Largemouth bass gorge on crappies that gorge on shad. American bullfrogs feast on native frogs whose bellies are crammed full of tadpoles. Crows hunt European starlings and house sparrows, sometimes snatching them in mid-air. And big snakes eat little ones.
Yet the kingsnake flips the script by not just eating, but also swallowing whole a creature bigger than it. “If the snake being eaten is longer than the kingsnake, it will get folded before being swallowed,” writes the GDNR. “It’s a snake-eat-snake world out there.”
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