Snakes are well known for not chewing their food, but instead swallowing their meal whole.
On 21 Nov, a man on a walk in Bukit Panjang spotted a snake doing exactly that, trying to swallow a sparrow twice as wide as it.
Photos of the green Oriental Whip Snake devouring its breakfast both amazed and saddened animal lovers, for its impressive subject and the harsh reality of nature.
Facebook user ‘Sia’ had been on a regular Tuesday morning walk at Zhenghua Nature Park in Bukit Panjang.
He then stumbled upon a surprising sight at 10.05am. An Oriental Whip Snake, with beautiful patterned green scales, had caught and seemingly killed a sparrow.
It hung from the branches of a small tree, the snake’s lengthy body disappearing out of frame.
Source: Sia on Facebook
Sia’s walking buddies estimated that it was around two to three metres long.
Image courtesy of Sia
While long, the snake was also rather thin.
Despite the bird being twice its thickness, the hungry snake unhinged its jaw anyway to swallow its prey whole. Sia said that it was his first time personally seeing such an encounter.
Source: Sia on Facebook
In fact, the snake is so much thinner that the bird appeared to be stuck in its mouth. The bird did not move, dangling lifelessly with the snake.
Source: Sia on Facebook
“[It] definitely will take some time for it to swallow the entire sparrow,” the OP wrote. He told MS News that the snake could have begun eating “at least an hour ago”.
Source: Sia on Facebook
An awed netizen found the footage “amazing”. They asked if the snake managed to actually devour its sizeable feast.
The OP replied that his walking group didn’t stick around to watch for long and so had no clue either.
Source: Facebook
Some animal lovers also found the photos quite saddening, due to the death of the poor bird.
One joked that they would go vegan for two weeks because the picture broke their heart, despite acknowledging that it’s simply nature.
Source: Facebook
Even Sia himself admitted to MS News that he felt sad for the poor sparrow. However, “it is a face of life in the nature world”, he reasoned.
Meanwhile, another commenter noted that the OP might have been too close to the snake while taking photos.
They said that doing so could cause the snake to abandon its meal and making the sparrow’s death “worthless”.
As an analogy, they compared humans to the titans from the manga and anime ‘Attack on Titan’.
The OP accepted the critique, thanking the commenter for the advice.
Overall, the photos showed both the impressiveness of nature, as well as its brutality.
Source: Sia on Facebook
Hopefully, the snake was able to finish its meal despite how difficult it looked to swallow.
Earlier this year, a king cobra swallowed a python whole after a seven-hour showdown in Mandai.
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Featured image adapted from Sia on Facebook.
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