Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Not a bad first day out herping. Caught an eastern garter, saw two snapping turtles the size of doormats (thier heads were the size of my fist), and snapped this pic of a garter attempting to eat what must surely be an impossibly large meal. My garters puke if I give them anything larger than a medium mouse, this toad was quite a bit bigger than that as you can see...

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

After he finally gave up...

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Not a good picture, but it that's a 6-7 inch painted to give you a sense of how big these snappers were.

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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

Arent cane toads poisonous? I nearly fwee one to my garter, but iev always read online that theyre abundunt because of the poison glands on their neck. My neighbors dog picked one up, then droppe dit and puked and faomed at the mouth because he tried to eat it.

I think it's an American toad, but yes, they do have parotid glands. Evidently not all snakes have issue with the toxins though as some, notably eastern hognose, subsist almost entirely on toads.
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"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only to what we know of it."

So are garters immune?

Great pictures!

Of course, its a bit hard to judge the relative sizes of the garter and the toad, but I don't think it's that big for the snake. I've seen grass snakes (Natrix natrix) eat toads about as big. Maybe it just couldn't get decent grip?

Just in case there is somebody here who hasn't seen this page yet, here's a garter eating an adult vole:
www.redshift.com/~bigcreek/fauna/garter%20snake/index.html

Unbelievable. I didn't realize a garter would take prey that size. Thanks for that link!

That is crazy. I have a cool video I'm trying to post of my snake striking a mouse. Do you know how to upload WMA file?