It is a sight Liz Williams expects never to see again: a tiger snake trapped in the jaws of a brown snake, slowly being swallowed.
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The Nanneella woman was on her evening rounds of her farm, outside of Rochester, when she came across what she described as a “knot of creatures”.
“I figured it was two snakes that I thought were mating, actually, then realised they were different species,” Ms Williams said.
The encounter was a far from friendly one, with the brown snake in the process of devouring its rival reptile.
Ms Williams ran back to the house to fetch her camera.
“I'm so aware of the fleeting nature of wildlife,” she said.
Snake sightings were not unusual at the Nanneella property but Ms Williams said she saw just one other of the creatures this summer before the terrible twosome squared off last Friday.
It was a night her late father would once have described as “snakey”, when warm ground and steamy weather would have prompted warnings to wear boots and take extra care on the farm.
She said the animals were left alone unless they entered human territory. A Merrigum snake catcher was called in to relocate the suriviviung reptile.
It is understood the brown snake managed to swallow all but 20 centimetres of the the tiger snake before deciding it was too long and regurgitating it.