Snake swallowing its prey on the sands of Africa

Here’s something you don’t see very often. Nature in action. In Africa we have deadly puff adder snakes, whose venom can kill you if the bite is not treated. I came across this snake on the road busy swallowing its prey. The frog was large, yet the snake managed to slowly but surely swallow it, inch by inch.

I only managed a few quick photos of the incident, but I thought it would be great to share them here with you today. It’s such a rare incident to capture that it makes for a good story.

The snake was in the road and not in a hurry to get out of the way. Once it has the prey in its mouth, the process takes quite a few minutes before the frog is swallowed. During this time the snake – even if it’s deadly – is very vulnerable. Not only cars but even people or other animals could attack it and the snake might be helpless with its mouth full. The fangs are otherwise engaged and the snake it weighed down by the large frog stuck in its dislocated jaws.

Gradually the frog is swallowed whole and the motion of the snake pushes it inside and further down the thin stretch of body. What a bizarre feat to behold. I was hesitant to go too close, out of instinctive caution, despite little real danger with the snake so engaged in the swallowing process.

These deadly snakes are prolific in summer in the rural areas of southern Africa and will lie in the road to retain the heat of the ground around sunset. They fearlessly slither right up to you house and look in the window sometimes. I encounter them almost every summer in different regions of this Cape coastal stretch on my tours.

Usually I’m hiking in the natural vegetation or over the rocky cliffs. Or sometimes I don’t have to venture too far and they appear in my path on the dirt road or at a house in the garden right by the front door.

One can’t really approach these killer adders, unless you’re trained and experienced, of course. So I simply let them slither around where they will, past the house and into the bush right beside our daily activities. It can be a bit delicate knowing that you’re living right next to a killer snake that lives in the bush just a step away from your daily activities.

Fortunately these snakes are timid and reclusive, not overtly attacking unless stepped upon or bothered in some way. Dogs occasionally find them and bark in their faces, so we need to keep our dogs away from the deadly adders when their paths cross. The adders usually retreat slowly into the bush, but if you bother them they get angry and make a puffing noise. Hence the name – puff adder.

I only captured a couple of photos of this scene but it makes for a rare experience to document like this so I am happy to bring you some real wildlife footage out of the sandy plains of Africa, way down south on the shores on the Indian ocean.

(photos my own)