Shocking! Massive Python Kills Crocodile and Swallows It (Video)

 

A python was caught on camera devouring a crocodile after an epic battle on the shores of an Australian lake, LiveScience reports.

 

In the footage, the snake could be seen constricting its prey and slowly stretching its mouth over the crocodile's scaly body during the course of five hours. The reptile death match captured the attention of people at Lake Moondarra, near Mount Isa in the state of Queensland, over the weekend. 

 

"You could see the crocodile in the snake's belly which I think was probably the more remarkable thing," local resident Tiffany Corlis told Australia's ABC News. "You could actually see its legs and see its scales and everything, it was just amazing."

 

Though the stomach-turning meal may look incredible, some animal experts say the incident isn't all that uncommon.

 

"The big eat the smaller," Lindsey Hord, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), wrote in an email to Live Science, noting that big snakes regularly eat crocodile relatives known as caiman in South America.

 

The combatants in this case are thought to be an olive python and a freshwater Johnston's crocodile, both native to northern Australia. Terry Phillip, of South Dakota's Reptile Gardens, told National Geographic that olive snakes are "known for being phenomenally powerful, pound for pound, and for feeding on large food items."

 

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