Wildlife technician sees one snake become three in bizarre twist during a routine survey in southeast Georgia
During a routine survey for federally protected eastern indigo snakes last November, wildlife technician for Georgia DNR Matt Moore came across an astonishing find.
After catching and tagging a stout 4-foot-long indigo (Drymarchon couperi) in southeast Georgia, Moore placed the snake in a cloth bag for weighing. Everything seemed normal until he opened the bag to find it filled with not one, but three snakes: a, now, slimmer indigo, a young rat snake, and a juvenile eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake.
The indigo had regurgitated the others, and in doing so lost about half a pound in weight.
At first Moore believed both of the regurgitated snakes to be dead but was surprised to find the rattlesnake’s tail twitch after a few minutes. An hour and a half later, it was crawling.
What are indigo snakes?
Indigos are voracious predators that grow up to 8 feet long and are immune to the venom of native snakes. Moore explained that indigos kill other snakes by crushing the skull, then swallowing the animals whole.
But it seems this indigo didn’t finish the job.
What happened to the rattle snake?
While the rattlesnake survived the ingestion, Moore observed that it had an injury on its head. He was concerned it might later succumb to the wound but three weeks later, Moore learned that someone had photographed a live rattlesnake that appeared to be the same animal.
Upon reviewing the images, which were taken in the same area the rattlesnake was released, Moore saw that they showed an eastern diamondback with the signature wound on its head and a dorsal diamond pattern that matched “exactly” his photos of the regurgitated rattlesnake.
So, it seems despite enduring regurgitation and a head injury, the rattlesnake is still alive and rattling.
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Main image: An indigo snake (right) with a rat snake (left) and a rattlesnake (centre). courtesy of Georgia Wildlife DNR