Reptile & Amphibian Forums

if not what kind ofcobra is it? it is huge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJuySDKZOTA

Some variety of Asian rat snake. Video quality is too poor for me to tell which. Someone else might have an idea.
-----
What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

the mongoose itself is about 3 feet long about

The snake appears to be Elaphe radiata. It might be a little over 6 feet, I would guess.

Indian Mongooses might get to be 3 feet long, but most that I have seen (and I've seen quite a few) were lucky to push 2.5 feet and half of that was tail.

-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

hello is this the same snake or is this some kind of rare species ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjipY_89nX0 this is is not the same mongoose i think this is the small indian mongoose aka javan mongose the other mongose was the common grey indian mongoose there is a huge size dif betweeen these mongooses like u have seen both mongooses in person also

That looks like a Ptyas to me.

That also looks like a staged "fight".

In regards to the Mongooses, I'm certainly no expert. But I have seen a large number of Herpestes fuscus, a few probable H. javanicus, probably some other smaller Asian Herpestes as well as the African Banded and Dwarf mongoose in the wild.

BTW - why this sudden rash of questions about snakes being eaten from video and photo searches online?
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

hi i am studying and fascinated with Ophiophagy

do u know any books on Ophiophagy i am not satisfied from what i have learned online. I started to get interested in this when i saw a battle between a striped sunk and a large rat snake they let me get 6 feet away from them iwanted to save the snake but i didn't even tho skunks are so damn common.

I doubt there are any books specifically on Ophiophagy, but there are certainly good books on general snake ecology and evolution that discuss ophiophagy in some detail. You might get a copy of Harry Greene's Snakes:The Evolution of Mystery in Nature www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520224872. It is a great book and has quite a bit about feeding and predation. If you wait until UC Press has their annual sale, you can pick it up for around $25 hardcover.

-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

can u tell me about the snakes in your picture? looks like a huge giant cribo and a rat snake? any idea on the size of each?

I'll let Chris verify, but I believe that's a Texas Indigo (Drymarchon corais erebennus) eating a corn snake.

~~Greg~~

look like a cribo mammal face they don look like reptiles lol

Hi Greg,.....

I certainly think the snake munching-down there is indeed a Texas Indigo, but strangely enough, I think the snake being consumed is a Central American Lyre Snake(Trimorphodon biscutatus quadruplex). It looks absolutely identical in every way to the one in "Living Snakes of the World" by ~John M. Mehrtens.

~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

The snake eating is a Red-tailed Cribo (Drymarchon melanurus rubidus) that was about 4-5 feet long while the meal was a Central American Lyresnake that was at least 5 feet long. And the Lyresnake had a lump in it the size of an adult rat as well.

This was near the town of Arriaga, Chiapas.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

chris did u take this picture urself

i did not think lyre snakes got over 1 meter

Yes. I was birding in Chiapas with a friend and she looked up ahead of us and asked "is that a snake hanging from that tree?".

Here's what she saw (although this was taken about 20 minutes later). The snake was swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

We figured a hawk had the snake hanging down so we approached closer but noticed this -

You can see the big lump in the Lyresnake in this photo. Just holding up the mass of that Lyresnake and its meal must have been exhausting to the cribo. I suspect the original fight must have been impressive!

We watched it for about 30 minutes or so as it swallowed it, then before it finished it got tired of the idiot with the camera and climbed backwards further up the tree.

We left it alone at this point. It has worked really hard for that meal.

And while Lyresnakes rarely exceed 3 feet in the US, T. biscutatus commonly exceed 5 or 6 feet in the southern parts of their range. I've seen photos of one that was probably 7 feet long. They are black rat/texas ratsnake in size. For comparison, that lump in the lyresnake was probably a big rat or maybe a small Iguana.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

so the cribo was shorter in length but still thicker in girth? just shows us how thcick they are.

WHen u got there was the snake still alive or totally dead by that point? would have taken hell of a beating for the shorter cribo to kill the longer lyre snake to the point of death. Cribos usually eat prey alive.

That's some incredible stuff!,..........nature at it's very BEST!!

~Doug
-----
"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

That is a way cool story, Chris. Sorry about the mis-i.d. Didn't know the pic was taken that far south. ~~Greg~~