Dinodon eating Bufo

[Hans Breuer (twoton)]

The relative dryness and the high temps didn't make for a really successful night, but we did manage to find this Dinodon rufozonatum constricting and eating a rather large Bufo bankorensis around midnight yesterday. Snakes eating stuff are always a treat. Although the serpent seemed to have difficulties getting the toad down the gullet, by the time we came back to the site fifteen minutes later, the bufo had already completely disappeared into the snake.

[jamison]

Hans,
Out of curiosity, I read the book, "The Snake Charmer" a year or two ago. As you may be familiar, Joe Slowinski was studying Many-banded Kraits (among other things) and was fatally bitten. According to the book, the Dinodon and the Krait are "nearly identical" and he pulled a Krait out of a bag thinking it was a harmless Dinodon. Though the book had several photos, they never printed a picture of the Dinodon. Yours looks drastically different from Krait photos I've seen. Do you have any examples of the two species referenced in his book? It would be interesting to see the similarities and differences if available.

Sorry for high-jacking your thread. Great observation by the way, and thanks for positing these pics.

Regards,

Jamison

[pinesnake]

Hello Hans

A very interesting scene of an interesting kind of nutrition.

And it is alwas interesting to see how you are herping in Taiwan!

Well done, thank you for sharing!


Bernd

[Warren]

I wonder if that big red venter sticking up in the air is aposematic colouration for predators. Come to think of it, the toad might be doing it too!

[Hans Breuer (twoton)]

Warren, the snake's venter is white....or have I misunderstood something?

jamison, the Dinodon mentioned in the Snake Charmer is D. septentrionalis. It looks like the one depicted here, but has white bands instead of red bands, making it a dead ringer for Bungarus multicinctus.

[mfb]

Great photos!

Do you have any shots of the snake with just the 'bufo bulge' after eating the toad?

Mike

[Hans Breuer (twoton)]

Hi Mike,

no, I don't, as the bulge was almost invisible. Incredible, but true - that snake must have had the stomach muscles from hell...