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When wildlife officials in Georgia slip up upon a pair of seemingly lifeless snakes that had been vomited up by another , larger snake in the grass , they were already storm by what they had found . But thing take an even weirder twist when one of the regurgitated serpents all of a sudden woke up and slithered off .
Wildlife technician from Georgia ’s Department of Natural Resources ( DNR ) came across the strange panorama in November 2023 while surveying federally protect easterly anil snakes ( Drymarchon couperi ) in southern Georgia , accord to aDNR Facebook postwritten on Aug. 29 .
Wildlife technicians in Georgia found an eastern indigo snake (right) that had recently vomited up a rat snake (left) and an eastern diamondback rattlesnake (center).
The squad receive a resilient 4 - infantry - foresightful ( 1.2 time ) indigo Hydra alongside two other serpent — a " vernal rat Hydra " and a juvenile easterly diamondback rattler ( Crotalus adamanteus ) — that had both " clearly [ been ] swallowed and then expelled " by the big snake , DNR representatives wrote .
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While the rat snake did not survive being eaten , the regurgitated rattlesnake eventually showed signal of life around an hour after it was set up , and it did n’t seem to be particularly bothered by the ordeal . " It was later on seen basking in the sun rather of charter tax shelter in a burrow , " DNR voice wrote .
DNR technicians soon noticed a mouse-size bulge in the belly of the regurgitated rattlesnake.
If that was n’t odd enough , the wildlife expert soon realize that the rattlesnake also had a big hump in its midsection , suggesting it had of late swallow a mouse whole .
" This strange episode not only unveil the indigo ’s impressive hunt abilities but also the rattlesnake ’s unexpected resiliency , " DNR representatives wrote .
Snakes eating one another whole is nothing new , and the size of the repast is seldom an obstacle .
For example , in June 2022 , a Georgia occupier film an eastern kingsnake ( Lampropeltis getula)slowly eating a much magnanimous timber rattlesnake(Crotalus horridus ) . A work let go of in August this year also document an incident where a Burmese python ( Python bivittatus)swallowed a larger reticulated python(Malayopython reticulatus ) from the tail up .
However , eating such monumental prey also comes with risks , such as choking .
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In February 2022 , a rim rock music coronate snake ( Tantilla oolitica)was found deadened in Florida after choking on a centipede , which was still lodged in its backtalk when it was fall upon . And in September last twelvemonth , a herpetologist in France stepped in to save a viperine snake ( Natrix maura ) thatwas choke on an encroaching fish .
In the recent case , the indigo snake may have been try out to avoid a similar destiny when it kick out its two victim . However , it is also possible that it voluntarily surrendered its meal to get away a predatory animal or because it was stressed out by the nearby wildlife expert expect for it .
