پروژه برنامه نویسی و طراحی وب سایت

As hinted at the end of my tree frogs and cane toads article, here are the photographs I managed to capture of a common - or green - tree snake (Dendrelaphis punctulata) which has just caught a red-eyed tree frog (Litoria chloris).

The funny thing is, this is a wild snake, but I was at Australia Zoo. These weren't taken while I was volunteering at Australia Zoo, rather, they were taken as a casual visitor, just before.

My family and I were in the Eastern Grey kangaroo enclosure, resting at the base of a huge pile of boulders. The rocks themselves are not to be climbed by visitors (as they are a refuge for the macropods), and there are two large macadamia nut trees on top. Whilst we were sitting at the base enjoying lunch in the sweltering heat (full credit to the zoo for providing mist showers just outside that enclosure!) I heard what I thought was the sound of a branch falling into the dried leaves at the base of the trees.

A few moments later two of the zoo volunteers alerted us to the fact that the sound was actually a common tree snake striking a red-eyed tree frog. Fortunately I hadn't yet filled my camera and I was able to take quite a number of photographs from as little as a meter or so from the snake.

You can see in this photograph that this individual has the rarer blue colouration.

Having removed the frog from the grasses at the base, the snake proceeded up the boulders. It was truly a magnificent sight to see this thread-thin reptile gracefully ascend the rock faces with consumate ease.

Naturally, the snake spent the whole time with the frog in its mouth, never once relenting for fear of losing the prey.

A long shot of the snake with the frog in its mouth. You can see its tail curled back around.

This close up photo gives us a better look at the face of this colubrid snake. Interestingly, the snake seems to have an aggressive appearance. I noticed this too with the taipans (photos to come) at the zoo and one of the staff explained that the scale above the eye lends a shape which we - as relational humans - interpret with human expression of aggression.

This snake really does have a relatively large eye, and a pointy little nose.

Here you can see the stark contrast between the dark dorsal surface and the bright yellow lips and ventral surface.

Here again the shape of the brow above the eyes lends a somewhat aggressive look. You can see the swollen throat as he begins to consume the frog and the brilliant blue is coming through between the scales. In Ken Griffiths' book on snakes and reptiles in the Sydney region he makes mention that when threatened the common tree snake will flash blue from between its scales.

Another interesting feature mentioned by Griffiths is that the snake is known for waving its head from side to side.

This long shot gives a better idea of the size of the snake. This really was quite a small snake, barely thicker than my finger except for the larger python head. I would estimate the snake was no more than 2 foot (60cm) long.