Warning...snake eating a frog

[curious kat]

....you were warned....I stumbled on this the other day and debated posting. But it was interesting in a scientific way...this garter snake was the largest I've ever seen, about 4 feet or more and actually rather pretty. I was amazed when the snake lifted the frog up to get it over the tree root, looked kind of "cobra-ish". Took a lot of pic's but will only post a few...the pic's are in order.







....it didn't really take very long for him to finish eating and he didn't seem to mind I was there. It looks awful but I've also seen a frog eating a snake...didn't get those pictures.

 

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[Cariboo5]

Excellent pictures of nature's survival.....

 

[DixieLandMan]

I've never seen a garter snake that big before.

 

[ivan salis]

hey snakes gotta make a living too..

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Great pics! I was over in Oregon on the John Day River 4 years ago. I saw a big frog dragging a 4' garter snake. The snake had it's teeth sunk in the large muscle of the frog's "thigh". I couldn't imagine why the snake was doing that, as the frog was huge, compared to the snake. The frog was bleeding, but not really bad. After seeing your pics, I'm wondering if maybe that snake COULD kill and eat that huge frog. When I stepped closer, the snake let go and took off.
Jim

 

[BurntBear]

Awesome, lol.

 

[cazisme]

It aint easy being green!

 

[texasred777]

In the late 1950s, a friend was working on his aunt's ranch in central Texas. He would come home to be with his family, dad, mom, and sisters, on weekends. One day he brought a rattlesnake that he had killed. It was huge. There was a large bulge in it's stomach. We slit the stomach. Inside was an almost grown jackrabbit.

 

[VERDE]

Hey kat!! We've been eating Frogs down here in Louisiana for Years!! Guess the snakes finally caught on!! Hope your well!! GOOD LUCK and GOOD HUNTING!! VERDE!!

 

[tamrock]

Today I'm happy I wasn't born a frog.

 

[curious kat]

Thanks Cariboo5....I had to skip lunch though...

DixieLandMan....I didn't know they got that big!?

ivan salis....yup

Jim in Idaho....I wonder if the snake has some sort of poison or something that "liquefies" the frog? Maybe that's why the one you saw wouldn't let go

Burnt Bear...thanks

cazisme....

texasred...wow that sounds like it was a very big rattler...sounds like "old fence post"...my mom use to talk about him (Texas).

VERDE....yes, hear lots of folk eat'em & love'em. Don't know if I would, maybe if I was starving.

tamrock....I hear ya!

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Kat...last night I was thinking about that. Seems like many years ago I read an article that claimed garter snakes have a mild venom. I'm wondering if that venom, if true, eventually weakens the frog until the snake can get a strangle-hold on it and finish it off. I'll have to do some research on that.
Jim

 

[BurntBear]

Please do Jim, I vaguely remember something like that.

 

[Jim in Idaho]

Here's something from the 'Net regarding garter snake venom.

Venom

Garter snakes were long thought to be nonvenomous, but recent discoveries have revealed they do, in fact, produce a mild neurotoxic venom.[4] Garter snakes cannot kill humans with the small amounts of comparatively mild venom they produce, and they also lack an effective means of delivering it. They do have enlarged teeth in the back of their mouths, but their gums are significantly larger.[5][6] The Duvernoy's glands of garters are posterior (to the rear) of the snake's eyes.[7] The mild venom is spread into wounds through a chewing action.

Read more: garter snake: Definition from Answers.com
I'd bet that's why that snake I saw was hanging onto that big frog. Chewing the venom into the wound. Eventually, that frog would have become weakened, or maybe comatose. The venom is neurological....shuts down the muscles, or central nervous system (ie.: breathing).
Jim

 

[BurntBear]

That's what I thought! Then again, I think about a lot of things that I'm not sure if they really happened, lol.

 

[curious kat]

Thanks Jim for researching that, now we know what's going on between garter snakes & their "food". lol

 

[austin]

1. Snakes eat frogs
2. Frenchmen eat frogs
3. Frenchmen are snakes

For my dearly departed English friend Elspeth. She lived a great life and always called the French---those Froggy Bas(well, children born out of wedlock)

 

[curious kat]

...Austin on the 1. 2. & 3. But so nice of you to do the remembrance for your friend.