# Mother nature winner and loser (snake vs toad ) be warned



## Jeff Hunt (Aug 13, 2014)

It never ceases to amaze how many times I have stumbled across mother nature at work in and around my house. Here are some pics of yet another example of how for one creature to survive, another must die. My dog was just as interested in this event as I was. It took over an hour and a half for the toad to be totally swallowed up by this garter snake.



























Cheers,

Jeff

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## at6 (Aug 13, 2014)

I would have been rooting for the toad. Score: Snake 1 Toad nil.


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## parsifal (Aug 13, 2014)

Not a venomous snake then I assume.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 13, 2014)

It is a garter snake.

I own one just like it as a pet.

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## Jeff Hunt (Aug 13, 2014)

parsifal said:


> Not a venomous snake then I assume.



Not toxic.

Only one poisonous snake here in Ontario that being the Massasauga Rattle Snake and they tend to be north of where I am.

Cheers,

Jeff


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## Old Wizard (Aug 13, 2014)

Nothing funnier than a pencil sized baby Garter Snake acting like a rattler when cornered. They will strike if provoked. It's just a bluff to startle predators.

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## Gnomey (Aug 13, 2014)

Nice shots! Bet he was pretty full after that...


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## at6 (Aug 13, 2014)

Beeeellllllllcccchh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Wayne Little (Aug 14, 2014)

Wow!


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## Marcel (Aug 18, 2014)

That's a big prey for a garter. Our only ate the little frog fish


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## Wurger (Aug 18, 2014)

Nice images. To be honest I don't like snakes.


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## Marcel (Aug 18, 2014)

These are totally harmles,Wojtek. 
It's a big snake for a gartersnake. Must be an old female. I wonder how the snake could catch the frog. Gartersnakes hardly have any teeth. The frog must have been half dead or very stupid.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 18, 2014)

Marcel said:


> These are totally harmles,Wojtek.
> It's a big snake for a gartersnake. Must be an old female. I wonder how the snake could catch the frog. Gartersnakes hardly have any teeth. The frog must have been half dead or very stupid.



Actually we see them here in the marsh eating fish and frogs all the time. They are very fast, and the jaws are still very strong.

I actually feed mine live fish from time to time (as a treat), and he loves it.


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## Wurger (Aug 18, 2014)

Marcel said:


> These are totally harmles,Wojtek.



I know. There is a cousin of the garter snake living in Poland. It is called "zaskroniec" because of light spots behind eyes.

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## Old Wizard (Aug 18, 2014)

We have three varieties of garter snakes here, along with the Prairie Rattler and the Bull Snake. The Bull Snake eats rodents and other snakes, including the Rattler.
Any Bulls I've picked up were quite docile.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 18, 2014)

Old Wizard said:


> We have three varieties of garter snakes here, along with the Prairie Rattler and the Bull Snake. The Bull Snake eats rodents and other snakes, including the Rattler.
> Any Bulls I've picked up were quite docile.



My wife has a 6ft Bull Snake at her work. It is very very docile. Lets you pick him up anytime and loves to be held. She uses it as a program animal for school classes.

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## GrauGeist (Aug 18, 2014)

A few years back, we were on a path down by the lake one summer morning. As we came around a corner on the narrow path, there was a pretty good sized rattler (about 36 inches/ roughly 1 meter) sunning himself. Both we and the snake were startled, the snake immediately coiling up and we stood completely still.

While weighing my options, a California King snake came out of the brush and attacked the rattler in a brutal example of nature at work. We kept standing totally still, not because of any danger, but because it was a sight you just never see in the wild (and of course, one of many times I didn't have my camera with me)...

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## Wildcat (Aug 19, 2014)

Stuff that. In my part of the world you don't pick up any snake!


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## Wurger (Aug 19, 2014)

It would be better to meet a kangaroo than a rattlesnake methinks.


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## Vic Balshaw (Aug 19, 2014)

Wurger said:


> It would be better to meet a kangaroo than a rattlesnake methinks.



Much better my friend, though get the roo riled, could be curtains for there is no way you could outrun the fellow. But on the whole they are very docile and just stand and watch you or bound off if unsure.

That garter snake however would not be wanting to eat one of our cane toads.


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## Wildcat (Aug 19, 2014)

They're not all cute and cuddly mind you, like this fella that I snapped behind my house a few years back.


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## Wurger (Aug 19, 2014)

A cane toad... oh yes. But it doesn't seem to be an Australian andemic amphibian.

The fella above looks like being interested in your models. It might have been a scout.


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## Vic Balshaw (Aug 19, 2014)

That is one big old brute and just look at them claws.


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## Wildcat (Aug 19, 2014)

Wurger said:


> The fella above looks like being interested in your models. It might have been a scout.


With claws like that he can have em!


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## Wurger (Aug 19, 2014)

These claws are nothing comparing to the thighs. A kick must hurt like a hell.


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## parsifal (Aug 19, 2014)

i kid you not. this is a true storey. Once quite recently, near canberra, i was driving down a rough dirt road, flanked by 1.5m high rural fences on either side of the road. The width of the road reserve was probably about 8m. There was a mob of kangaros, with two stuck on one side. one was a very big buck, the other looked like a female, but cant be sure. Effortlessly, as i drove down this road, the buck lept over the two fences and the road in one jump. I clocked him at over 40kmh and he got airborne that was well above the height of the truck. They can be pretty energetic....There have been numerous fatalities on australian roads from roos. one case that i know of, the roo came through the screen and decapitated the occupants as it travelled from the front of the vehicle to the back. That animal is understood to have survived the encounter.


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## Wildcat (Aug 20, 2014)

My brother hit a roo in his car doing about 60kph. The roo got flung over the bonnet and across to the other side of the road, it got up and hopped away! Banged his car up though.


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## GrauGeist (Aug 20, 2014)

I'll bet our Canadian friends have a few stories of what a Moose or Elk can do to a car...


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## Wurger (Aug 20, 2014)

Here in Poland it is easier to hit a wild boar than a roo or a moose on a road. But damages made to a car can be the same terrible. On the other hand, two years ago a troop of European bisons bottled up an airfield of one of the PAF airbases. Just the grass there must have been very tasty for them.

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## Jeff Hunt (Aug 20, 2014)

Closeup of a garter snake in my yard.

Cheers,

jeff

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## Wurger (Aug 20, 2014)




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## Wildcat (Aug 20, 2014)

Nice shot Jeff!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Aug 20, 2014)

Jeff Hunt said:


> View attachment 269918
> 
> 
> Closeup of a garter snake in my yard.
> ...



Very cute. The thing I like the most is their eyes.


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## at6 (Aug 20, 2014)

Still creeps me out. Hard to find anything pretty about serpentaria.


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## Old Wizard (Aug 20, 2014)

My late mother feared snakes greatly. She was born on a farm in Nebraska and was trained never to go out on the porch before checking for rattlers.
As a kid in Regina Sask., I once proudly brought home a garter snake, knowing full well it would freak her out. It did! The Devil made me do it.


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