Feeding

Tiger Snake eating a mutton bird
Photo: Charles Tanner

Spotted Python eating a fence skink

An Amethyst Python eating a wallaby
Photo: Bruno Fighera

An Amethyst Python eating a wallaby
Photo: Bruno Fighera

X-ray of Carpet Python with a possum in its gut
Image courtesy Simon Grainger

Most Australian snakes eat vertebrates – frogs, lizards, other snakes, birds and mammals. Some have highly specialised diets; Bandy Bandys eat only blind snakes, which in turn feed exclusively on termites and the eggs, larvae and pupae of ants.

Snakes can immobilise prey by constriction (pythons); by injecting venom (elapids); by a combination of both (Eastern Brown Snake); or simply by seizing and swallowing their prey (Common Tree Snake).

Most snakes can swallow prey much larger than their heads. Loosely connected head bones and flexible ligaments allow this. For example, a Carpet Python can consume a wallaby or a large bird and a Coastal Taipan can swallow a bandicoot.