Determined snake tried to swallow possum half its size

The possum was alive even with its head inside a two-metre python, Adrian Brand realised. When he reached out to touch the marsupial, its tail wrapped around his finger.



Mr Brand witnessed the conspicuous consumption in a city gutter while cycling in Brisbane, Australia, at about 9.30am on Boxing Day. He stopped to see what bystanders were looking at and filmed the tussle on his phone. The videos show what appears to be a spotted python repositioning itself ahead of a long lunch.


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"My guess is the possum fell out of the tree," Mr Brand said. "It would have been asleep and ambushed by the python. It was being constricted to death." One passing mother "freaked out", telling her child to stay away. "I thought, 'It's got a possum in its mouth - it can't hurt your kid'," Mr Brand said.


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The feast was moveable, a cyclist demonstrated after he decided it should be moved off the road. He picked the possum up by the tail, the snake still coiled tightly around it, and carted the pair away to a nearby garden. "I would've happily stood there to watch the whole thing," Mr Brand said. Born in Brisbane, he said he had never seen anything like it before. "I thought, 'Wow, that's awesome'."