Baby olive keelbacks got eaten by a kingfisher at Vedanthangal, and now a checkered keelback is caught on camera trying to eat a humungous fish, at IIT, in front of forty kids on a birdwatching outing!
Read about it here! Keelback steals the show
So many questions from this incident.
What was the snake?
A chequered keelback was the general opinion. Its a common water snake supposedly and non-poisonous. But, folks, and this is an important but, it is an agressive, bad-tempered snake!!
I'm glad it was busy with the fish when the kids came across it!! Its bite can be quite painful, and it also does not let go until its jaws are forced open. Yeesh, all that does not sound very nice.
What was the fish?
A climbing perch, opined some. I had heard of these fish, which supposedly "walk" on land, and IIT does have them. Reportedly these fish can survive out of water for a while, and move with the aid of their fins and tail!
Why was the snake unable to eat it?
Preston Ahimaz said, "In the case of snakes, the jaw bones are hinged with elastic ligaments which simply stretch to enable the jaws to swing way beyond any bone pivot would permit."
So, despite this elasticity that all snakes have, the keelback could not swallow this fish, and gave up after an hour, reported the observers.
Maybe it was not a full-grown keelback?
PS: It seems to make a habit of biting off more than it can handle. A search on Flickr, revealed various pictures of the snake with a huge fish in its mouth!!
I wish I had been there to see this!
ReplyDeleteCan you upload a photograph of the snake trying to gobble the fish. Must have been an extraordinary sight !
ReplyDeleteYes, it must have been a sight, but unfortunately I have no picture, Mr Ramakrishnan.
ReplyDeleteI think the link to The Hindu article does, though.