The Northern Water Snakes (
Nerodia sipedon) are dropping their babies this time of year and I happened to stumble upon a neonate consuming it's (likely) first meal.
Of course, I had my camera with me so enjoy the show!
And you think you're having a bad day (this Leopard was alive for most of the process)...
This Water Snake is only 7" long and seems to have made a poor choice in orienting its prey (back legs first is not so good when the snake reaches the forelimbs - the whole ingestion literally took a couple of hours).
Notice the tear in the epidermis of the frog - throw in a little anticoagulating saliva and you can probably imagine what comes next...
(the frog is still very much alive)
An hour later, the frog has finally succumbed to it's predator...
A little disgusting, but this is what happens when you try and squish such a large frog down such a small snake - notice a portion of the digestive system has prolapsed.
So there you have it! Predator and prey - it ain't pretty sometimes but that's life...
Cheers,
Ryan
P.S. The snake is still going strong - I have seen it a couple of times since.
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