Theme post: herps eating in the wild

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Antonsrkn
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Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Antonsrkn »

Hi all,
A long time ago I started a post with the same theme and it was a pretty interesting thread with alot of awesome photos, that was pre-crash times and unfortunately is now gone. My favorite thing about observing herps (and other animals) in the wild is seeing wild behavior of which I have to admit my favorite is predation. Since I am getting pretty stir crazy and am sure many of you are also I thought I would start up a thread where we could all share our photos of wild herps eating whether its examples of predation or just a tortoise munching on some veggies. There was a big turnout last time and I hope there will be this time as well with some golden oldies and some new photos making appearances. Hope you guys enjoy and participate in this thread.

I'll start, I have posted the majority of these at one time or other beforehand but here they are again...

Anole with dragonfly
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Northern watersnake with green frog
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A bit of an unusual one, green frog eating its shed skin
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Blue spotted salamander with worm
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Green sea turtle eating sea grass
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Alligator & turtle
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American crocodile and black snook
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Well those are mine, now lets see yours! Hopefully this helps ward of the cabin fever for all of us whose herping season hasn't started yet and for those for whom it has hopefully its just a fun thread.
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Gary2sons
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Gary2sons »

Some really cool pics! I remember that older post! :thumb:

Here is a black rat snake eating a deer mouse. We had walked up on it and after taking several pics it released the mouse and went down a hole. After a few minutes it reappeared and very quickly grabbed it and pulled it back down the hole. Glad we waited that few minutes!


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Nature Nate
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Post by Nature Nate »

This happened several years ago back when all I had was the family digital camera so the quality isn't very good but I was able to record this interesting event.

On a sunny day in my backyard I was wandering around looking for racer snakes when I heard one rustling in some dry leaves. I turned to see a racer struggling with an aligator lizard. I ran back to the house to get the camera and proceded to climb on top of a fence from which I snapped these pictures over a 5 minute period:

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Nick Scobel
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Nick Scobel »

Cool idea Anton! I don't have much to offer, but one of these is pretty cool indeed. I'll start with a juvenile Eastern Garter Snake trying to take down a small American Toad.

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And then a few years back, Jake Seals and I found this, mud snake swallowing down a siren in southern Illinois.

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Fieldnotes
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Fieldnotes »

That croc on the beach is amazing; I'd love to see a creature that size come ashore on a beach. Was that in Florida? Have any more picture of it and the surrounding ocean environment?
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Post by bgorum »

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Phil Peak
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Phil Peak »

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Great subject and great photos! A couple of contributions. Midwest worm snake gobbling down an earthworm in the wee hours of morning on a lonely stretch of road.

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Northern copperhead eating small mammal in the same situation.

Phil
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Kyle Dickerson
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Kyle Dickerson »

Crotalus mitchelliii

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MaartenSFS
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by MaartenSFS »

Nice photos! I have nothing to contribute, as my shite camera only has 3X zoom. Perhaps in the future.. Keep them coming. :beer:
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Greg Theos
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Greg Theos »

On a warm late November day in south Georgia I observed a racer attempting to overtake a skink.

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The skink broke free of the racer's grasp and "ran" to the top of a 50 foot tall pine tree. The racer waited patiently on a branch just a few feet below. Ultimately, the skink performed a Triple Lindy suicide manuever and lived to die another day.

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Another racer, this time devouring a scarlet snake.

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rosy-man
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Post by rosy-man »

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Steve Barten
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Steve Barten »

Great idea for a thread; there are some amazing shots here. In my opinion, Nick Scobel wins. A Mud Snake eating a siren? Ridiculous.

Hatchling Shawnee King and a Red-bellied Snake.
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Red Milk eating a Woodland Vole. One of these won POW in 2007 in my first FHF post; I think it was the second shot. You'll notice how I have learned to get more subtle with my copyright notices over the years.
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I never did change my avatar.

Do herps getting eaten count?
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Herbivores have got to eat too. Geochelone nigra porteri on Santa Cruz, Galapagos.
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by BillMcGighan »

Wow... These are great....
The only one I found in the field while a camera was handy:
Central Florida, 10myears ago, coming home just after dark, parking our boat next to the house, a Scarlet King was finishing off an American Anole in the garden.
Got two pics and he pulled it down under the mulch.
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justinm
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by justinm »

Nick Scobel wrote:
And then a few years back, Jake Seals and I found this, mud snake swallowing down a siren in southern Illinois.

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You know I can't ever give you a spot again, and that you're lucky I didn't kill myself and blame you...
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Andy Avram
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Andy Avram »

Good topic. I have nothing that beats your classic pictures of the croc and snook, and of course the “needs to be on a poster” turtle in gator mouth, even though, if I am not mistaken, that turtle lived.

Here are my contributions. They are all snake related.

First up is a Northern Water Snake eating a frog that was so badly decomposed I found it by following the smell from about 30’ away.

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Next up is this Eastern Garter Snake. I caught it and was holding on to it when I saw a toad hop by. While still holding the snake I put its head near the toad and he grabbed it. I think he then wasn’t sure what to do because he had the toad but I still had the snake. I gently put it down and walked away. I only assume the snake finished eating the toad.

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Eastern Fox Snake meets baby Eastern Cottontail on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. The snake was skittish and I had work to do so I didn’t finish watching.

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And lastly, a classic series of a 3.5’ Black Rat Snake eating an adult Red Squirrel outside my office one day. I photographed the entire series for the next hour to hour and a half. It was awesome. Here is a sampling of the pictures.

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VICtort
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by VICtort »

Dear Antonsrkn,

fun idea, some great "punchy" stuff posted. Do tell us the story about the crocodile and the snook...where and how it happened. Was the snook taken off a fishing line by the croc or did you just see it catch a free fish? Roughly how large is that croc and the snook? Very sharp images, really amazing thing to see.

Thank you, a fine idea, I wish I had a camera for the few times I witnessed herp predation...Vic
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Antonsrkn
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Antonsrkn »

Wow, lots of fantastic photos so far I have enjoyed seeing them all, keep em coming!

Nick, I'm glad you posted that mudsnake & siren, that is truly amazing I think I could spend years prowling along the waters edge in suitable habitat and never see anything like that.
Steve, I remember that milksnake and vole from when you first posted them, a really incredible series and its only made cooler by the fact that the milk is a gorgeous individual.
Andy, that ratsnake and squirrel series is another one I remember from the past and was hoping to see again, its intense! and yep that turtle survived the encounter and seemed none the worse for it.
That croc on the beach is amazing; I'd love to see a creature that size come ashore on a beach. Was that in Florida? Have any more picture of it and the surrounding ocean environment?
Do tell us the story about the crocodile and the snook...where and how it happened. Was the snook taken off a fishing line by the croc or did you just see it catch a free fish? Roughly how large is that croc and the snook?
Its probably the single coolest herp moment I have ever had so I'm more than happy to retell the story and share details. For starters this happened down in Costa Rica in the southern part of the country in Corcovado National Park, on the Osa Peninsula. The beach where this happened is fairly hard to get to, its located by Sirena ranger station which is a days hike from any roads. My first day there I noticed a large aggregation of birds (terns & gulls) hovering and diving over a small stretch of ocean, once I moved closer to investigate it became apparent that the birds were grabbing little fish out of the water. I spent some time watching them before I noticed several dark shapes out among the waves, turns out there were 2-3 crocs out in the ocean! They would face incoming waves with their jaws agape and let the waves rush over them, I thought that they were also feeding on the little fish but when I posted this the 1st time it was pointed out to me that they were more likely feeding on the larger fish that were there to eat the small fingerling fish. It was getting too dark to really see what was going on so I called it a day. The next afternoon I was eager to see more of the same behavior, so I scanned the horizon for the cloud of birds again and was able to find it without much difficulty not too far from where they had been the previous day. Once I took up position on the beach with my 400mm lens I observed several crocs out in the waves, I saw several of them catch smallish to medium sized fish and just eat them right out in the ocean. I was mostly photographing the biggest croc who also happened to be the closest. After a wave washed over it and settled I thought I could see that the croc had something struggling in its jaws...
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Of course I got excited and started snapping away, it was a little while before I realized that the croc was getting bigger and bigger in my viewfinder and it was about then that I realized he was bringing the snook to shore! I backed up a little bit so as to give the croc her/his space and watched as it dragged the snook, which I would say was 2.5-3 ft long, out of the ocean. I believe it did this because while smaller fish were eaten right out in the ocean a bigger more powerful fish like this was far more likely to escape so the croc kept his jaws shut tight until reaching land where it proceeded to eat the snook. The croc itself was probably 12 ft or so and as you can see was a rather hefty individual but the snook still put up a fight but despite its best efforts the croc got it down in 5 min or so and then dragged itself back into the water and proceeded to hunt. it was amazing to see, I was within 15 feet of the croc the entire time. I don't know how common it is for the crocs to come out in the ocean to hunt but I suspect that they normally spend their time in the nearby Sirena river which is known for its abundant and large crocs.
Fieldnotes, I took 47 photos of the croc/snook start to finish but I feel that the ones I posted are the best of the bunch, I also have others of the crocs out in the ocean before and after that. Heres a few other photos...
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DaneConley
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by DaneConley »

I have only seen one wild snake eating. I came across a kingsnake eating a worm snake. The worm snake went in the hole and the kingsnake gave up so I went to catch the kingsnake. Then I reached far in the worm snake hole and caught him. It was a large 11 inch long worm snake...my second largest. Well I put them next to each other while getting myself out of a thorn bush...and yeah.
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Matt.O
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Post by Matt.O »

Western Cottonmouth eating a Common Snapping Turtle

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fins72
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Post by fins72 »

Down in South FL I saw this Pig Frog (Maybe? Correct me if I’m wrong) being eaten by this Florida water. It was a pretty big meal that I watched for at least a half an hour
Process of eating
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All done :D

This was another really cool encounter I wish I could have had but either way I just think it needs to be shared on this forum even though this is not my story and these are not my pictures. I have asked permission to tell the story and post these pictures.
Here is a coachwhip eating a rabbit in a tree.
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(Photo and encounter credit to Laura Marti)
This was found because the rabbit was heard squealing and the sound was traced up into the tree where the meal was taking place. I thought it was a pretty incredible counter and I was very jealous to had to seen this in a place where I go look for Coachwhips. And that looks like a pretty nice Coachwhip for South FL if you ask me.

I’ve also seen an EDB eating a bird but I did not have my camera at the time but I will try and get a hold of the pictures and try to get that person to share them.
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Daryl Eby
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Daryl Eby »

Great topic. Here's a couple of mine that I can access readily. I'll try to post at least a couple more when I get back to Terlingua and can search my archives.

Trans-Pecos Rat eating bats - video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmYgmm0b ... re=related

Desert Box Turtle eating the remains of a road killed bird.
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Curtis Hart
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Curtis Hart »

From the Llanos of Venezuela.
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Daryl Eby
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Post by Daryl Eby »

Curtis Hart wrote:From the Llanos of Venezuela.
Any idea what that beast is eating? Looks like the prey's guts are protruding.
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Jimmy_77 »

Daryl Eby wrote:
Curtis Hart wrote:From the Llanos of Venezuela.
Any idea what that beast is eating? Looks like the prey's guts are protruding.
Yes it would be very interesting to identify the prey.
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Tom »

Looks tegu-ish to me?

Awesome photographs of the croc - I'm yet to capture a herp feeding on camera. :cry:
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Cannon
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Post by Cannon »

Sweet post!
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Post by ThamnElegans24 »

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jonathan
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by jonathan »

Some of my best ones (juvi copperhead striking at juvi leopard frog, coachwhip holding on to desert spiny lizard in a joshua tree) were when I was cameraless. But here are a few international ones.


Earlier this week in Laos I saw these flat-tailed house geckos converge on an insect, but it got away before they could catch it. You see geckos chasing stuff all the time around here:

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Last week in Bangkok it was a water monitor tearing apart a large fish.

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I've also seen them eating snails, which I think is what this one is doing:

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In Coba, Mexico I was lucky to see this croc feeding on a discarded chicken carcass (not a setup - my wife and I were alone in a random part of the lake and someone had discarded the chicken long before we got there). The croc took the chicken from a puppy that had been gnawing on it.


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As far as "stuff eating herps" goes, there was that raccoon with the copperhead that we saw on the NE Chapter NAFHA trip last year.
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mfb
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Post by mfb »

Great idea for a thread!

It is really cool to see all of these observations.

I’ve seen Antonsrkn’s “Alligator and turtle” pop up here and on flickr and it is one of my all-time favorite herp photos.

Phil Peak’s “Midwest worm snake gobbling down an earthworm” is also pretty awesome. It may be the only photo I’ve seen of a in-situ wild snake eating a worm.

jonathan’s monitor eating a rotten fish is awesome in a disgusting way.

I moderate a flickr group devoted to snakes eating in nature, and you'd all be welcome to add these photos there too.

Here’s two photos I took a while ago of a kingsnake eating a gartersnake around noon in a pond in Napa Co., CA. Took close to two hours for the kingsnake to eat the whole gartersnake.

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And here is the food web upside down; giant water bug eating an adult pacific chorus frog in Napa Co., CA.

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Turns out that bigger male frogs are more likely to be eaten than smaller male frogs.
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DaneConley
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Post by DaneConley »

I really love the cottonmouth and the little snapping turtle...they have been famous for eating everything.
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Steve Barten
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Post by Steve Barten »

Lots of terrific photos on this thread. I really liked the croc eating the snook and the black rat eating the squirrel.

Phil Peak generated some interest with fans of in situ wild snakes eating worms. His great photo reminded me that I had shots of another worm snake eating a worm. This one was found while hiking a very popular gravel road at dusk on 4/29/10.
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mfb
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Post by mfb »

Steve Barten wrote:Lots of terrific photos on this thread. I really liked the croc eating the snook and the black rat eating the squirrel.

Phil Peak generated some interest with fans of in situ wild snakes eating worms. His great photo reminded me that I had shots of another worm snake eating a worm. This one was found while hiking a very popular gravel road at dusk on 4/29/10.
That's another very cool observation!

Do you know if the snake ended up swallowing the worm headfirst? I'd be curious if worm-eating snakes had a usual direction of swallowing for worms - like how other snakes tend to swallow frogs from the back first, or mammals headfirst.
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Steve Atkins
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Post by Steve Atkins »

I love those croc shots

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DaneConley
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Post by DaneConley »

That black rat and the egg is nice. So is the alligator with blood everywhere.
Didn't know a bull frog would go for a crayfish of that size.
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Post by Mathias Holm »

Varanus salvator eating. Photographed in Bangkok last year:
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Steve Barten
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Post by Steve Barten »

mfb:
Do you know if the snake ended up swallowing the worm headfirst?
I stood aside to let other photographers have a turn and ended up walking down the road while they worked, so I never saw the worm snake finish. Sorry.
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DaneConley
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Post by DaneConley »

That bird must have S*** himself. :lol:
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Post by kysnakeguy »

wow great pics every one
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mfb
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by mfb »

fox cove 4 wrote:I love those croc shots



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Pretty interesting! Was that your henhouse getting raided? How did the chickens respond?
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DaneConley
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Post by DaneConley »

They chickened out...hahaha. Cheesy joke I know.
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Post by bsumbdy »

Hi Everyone, havnt been a member since before crash. Glad to be back on. This is a pic I posted before. In SITU In the foothills of SoCal. It fits the subject.
Chris
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Natalie McNear
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Post by Natalie McNear »

Very cool pictures in this thread. :D

I see lizards eating insects and spiders all the time, but I guess that doesn't really count.

Last year some friends and I were road cruising in AZ when we came across an Atrox crossing the road. He bolted into the grass, but we managed to get him back for some photos (it was a lifer for some people I think). We soon noticed that there was a dead rat a little ways up the road, very fresh and completely unmutilated (i.e., it hadn't been hit by a car). We figured the snake had bitten the rodent and was tracking it, so we put the rat in front of the snake's head. Much to our surprise, after a moment or two the snake began to eat the rat. From that point on, he didn't give a crap about the car headlights or camera flashes, he was just happy to have his dinner. Took him maybe about 10 minutes to get it down, and after that he just went on his way in a leisurely manner. Very cool thing to see. :D

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About a week before that I was digging for fossils on Vancouver Island, when I saw a Valley Garter in the creek. I ran and grabbed it before I noticed it was in the process of swallowing a pretty big Northern Red-legged Frog (which seemed to be dead). I put back down and began filming with my phone, and got some pretty good shots. Here are some stills:

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Jackson Shedd
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Jackson Shedd »

bsumbdy wrote:Hi Everyone, havnt been a member since before crash. Glad to be back on. This is a pic I posted before. In SITU In the foothills of SoCal. It fits the subject.
Chris
Very cool photo. Did you happen to hang around and see if the Gambelia finished the meal or decided it was going to choke to death? Hatchling/juvies are probably predated upon successfully by leopards a lot, but adult Phrynosoma are another story.
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Post by bsumbdy »

Unfortunately, in the attempt to get a better shot I spooked the Leopard, and it released its grip on the Coastal and ran off. The Coastal was already dead. Felt bad, didn't have a good telephoto.
Chris
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by jonathan »

Jackson Shedd wrote:
bsumbdy wrote:Hi Everyone, havnt been a member since before crash. Glad to be back on. This is a pic I posted before. In SITU In the foothills of SoCal. It fits the subject.
Chris
Very cool photo. Did you happen to hang around and see if the Gambelia finished the meal or decided it was going to choke to death? Hatchling/juvies are probably predated upon successfully by leopards a lot, but adult Phrynosoma are another story.

For a long time I kept a leopard lizard and a desert iguana (similar size) in the same good-sized enclosure with no problems at all. After more than a year of captivity I adjusted half the cage to be favorable to my mojave fringe-toed lizard (about 2/3 the size of the leopard lizard) and introduced it into the enclosure to see if I could give the FTL a little more running room than it had in its own enclosure. The first day it went fine, but the second day the leopard lizard was running around the cage with the fringe-toed held perpendicularly in its mouth. I'm sure it couldn't have swallowed it though - not sure what it was going to do. I separated them and kept the FTL in its own enclosure after that, and it lived another three years without any problems.
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Jackson Shedd »

Jonathan-

I think G. wislizenii often takes lizards 2/3rds its size such as your Uma. Also Callisaurus regularly. I've heard/read accounts of a leopard just going around with the prey item hanging out of its mouth, likely letting the front part of the lizard digest until there's room to swallow more. But with Phrynosoma, it's the cranial horns that are the concern. The horns are not very developed in the smaller young (especially hatchlings), but swallowing adults can be lethal. There are published accounts of reptile predators, for example C. atrox, not getting very far with ad. Phrynosoma because the temporal horns protruded right through the throat and skin of the snake. If you haven't seen them, the photos are pretty cool.
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jonathan
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

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Jackson Shedd wrote:I think G. wislizenii often takes lizards 2/3rds its size such as your Uma. Also Callisaurus regularly. I've heard/read accounts of a leopard just going around with the prey item hanging out of its mouth, likely letting the front part of the lizard digest until there's room to swallow more. But with Phrynosoma, it's the cranial horns that are the concern. The horns are not very developed in the smaller young (especially hatchlings), but swallowing adults can be lethal. There are published accounts of reptile predators, for example C. atrox, not getting very far with ad. Phrynosoma because the temporal horns protruded right through the throat and skin of the snake. If you haven't seen them, the photos are pretty cool.

Yeah, I can get why Phrynosoma would definitely be worse. To look at my Uma though, it was pretty difficult to see how the leopard lizard would get it in its mouth.
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Antonsrkn
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

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Wow! Lots more incredible photos posted. Lets keep em coming if we can.
Natalie McNear wrote:I see lizards eating insects and spiders all the time, but I guess that doesn't really count.
If you have photos, it definitely counts, I for one would like to see them. And by the way awesome series, both of them.

Fox cove, those gator photos were awesome. Whats the story with them? Looks like they are just camping out near some sort of rapids and just wait for fish to fall into their mouths. We have all seen bears engage in similar behavior but gators are even better.

Chris, that leopard lizard and horny toad shot is fantastic, I would never have expected a leopard lizard to try to prey on something that size.

I loved both observations with the monitors, really impressive lizards and I have to admit they're even more impressive when they're tearing into a hunk of meat like that bird or fish carcass.
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Steve Atkins
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by Steve Atkins »

That water monitor shot is awesome



mfb wrote:
fox cove 4 wrote:I love those croc shots



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Pretty interesting! Was that your henhouse getting raided? How did the chickens respond?
Yeah, my chickens. The chickens don't seem to notice or care much when a snake is around, unless there is a broody hen or baby chicks, then the mothers get pretty protective.
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mfb
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Re: Theme post: herps eating in the wild

Post by mfb »

A ghost anole (Anolis lemurinus) observed eating a moth in the Si'an Kaan Biosphere preserve in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

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