Animal protection officers caught a snake devouring its own kind in the wild

An Australian snake has been filmed eating a smaller, very unlucky member of its own species.Nick Stock, manager of the Australian Wildlife Conservation Society's (AWC) Picnicinni Plains Wildlife Reserve in far north Queensland, captured a rare image of a largeA black-headed python is feasting on another black-headed python. Although pythons typically fatally restrain their prey before eating, this smaller snake was indeed swallowed alive.

While cannibalism is strictly taboo among humans, it is common in the animal kingdom and more common than most people imagine, as it is their natural behavior.

"I was lucky, but the python that was eaten was not so lucky," Stoker said. "It took about 15 minutes from the first time I saw the python begin to shrink to the time it finished eating and returned to the cave. The cave was only 10 feet away from the python, which gave me enough time to get a camera to record the event."

Unlike many snakes that prey on mammals, non-venomous black-headed pythons (Aspiditesmelanocephalus) more often eat reptiles, and immature pythons are vulnerable to predation by larger adult pythons. However, it's extremely rare to witness this type of cannibalism in person, let alone capture it on camera.

"I was surprised at first, but I feel very lucky to have witnessed such an event," Stock said. "I have witnessed a black-headed python eat an Eastern brown snake and a yellow-spotted monitor lizard before, however, this was the first time I had witnessed a black-headed python eat another black-headed python."