"Is that a snake in that tree?!"
That's the question Chéree asked me as we walked along in a pasture next to a mangrove lined channel in Puerto Arrista, Chiapas, Mexico last week.
I looked up and there appeared to be a long section of snake dangling and swinging back and forth from a tree a few yards ahead of us
As we approached, I realized I was looking at about 5 feet of a large Lyresnake (Trimorphodon) hanging from a tree, swinging back and forth. As I investigated, I expected to find a hawk or raccoon having a snake snack. Instead, I found this -
A young Red-tailed Cribo (D.c. rubidus) (I guess that is the subspecies on the Pacific coast of Chiapas?) swallowing the big lyresnake.
It was a large Lyresnake (they get big in southern Mexico) and it had apparently just finished a large rat off the night before (notice the lump). The amazing thing was that the rubidus (?) eating this snake was only about 4 feet long and the Lyresnake was not only longer, but had this adult-rat-sized meal inside it! The rat alone would be a decent meal for the cribo.
For reference, the bottom of the limb the snake is on is about 6 feet off the ground. -
We watched it for a while and I hung around the area, checking back every 10 minutes or so. About 20 minutes later, he was almost done (although the lyresnake kept wrapping his tail around the branches, struggling to the very end - literally!)
I suspect the Trimorph was sleeping off his big meal up in this tree when the cribo caught a whiff of him. A pretty good fight must have ensured (the lyresnake had some pretty good scars!) but the young cribo won.
I watched him on and off for about 30 minutes and eventually he got enough of it down that he could crawl higher up in the tree and away from this annoying gringo with the flash.
On the trip we saw this rubidus (?) on the Pacific Coast, a big DOR melanurus on the Gulf Coast of Tabasco, and several DOR errebennus on the Gulf Coast of Tamps. and northern Veracruz.
Eventually I will put up a page with the whole series of pics I took of this natural predation event, as well as some of the other herp pics we took. But this find was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.
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Chris Harrison
