Source : Perth Now news
A Perth woman has captured the incredible moment a snake devoured a parrot while hanging in a tree along a popular WA walking trail.
Lucy Louise was walking with her kids along the Swan View Tunnel Trail in John Forrest National Park when she came across the wild scene, telling PerthNow she was “amazed” at what she saw.
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“Someone mentioned that there was a python in a tree up ahead while we were on our walk but we couldn’t spot it for a while,” Ms Louise began.
“But then just as we were about to head back, we looked down a little track and could see something in the tree. It took us a while to figure out what exactly we were looking at!”
Upon closer inspection, she realised they had found the reptile and it wasn’t alone.
Ms Louise continued: “It had probably swallowed around half of the parrot by the time we got close, but we watched it keep going as it swallowed the rest of it.”
Carpet pythons are commonly found reptiles in WA and are native to the state’s bushland, but can also be found in Perth’s outer suburbs and in national parks.
Pythons are expert climbers and ambush predators, frequently targeting birds, including parrots, and hunt for them near hollow tree branches and water sources.
Striking with speed, the reptiles are then able to coil around the bird to constrict it before swallowing it whole.
With the family in awe, they stood and watched as the expert predator polished off its meal.
“It was incredible to watch, and hard to believe that it could fit the whole thing in its mouth. The kids were amazed too, even though they found it hard to watch, but that’s the circle of life!”
