Biting off more than you can chew: attempted predation on a human by a giant snake (Simalia amethistina)

Daniel Natusch; Jessica Lyons; Lea Ann Mears; Richard Shine

doi:10.1111/aec.12956

Biting off more than you can chew: attempted predation on a human by a giant snake (Simalia amethistina)

Daniel Natusch^*, Jessica Lyons, Lea Ann Mears, Richard Shine

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

On 10 March 2014, a radio-tracked Australian scrub python (Simalia amethistina) made a predatory attack on a 64 kg sleeping woman. The snake was unsuccessful, but data from our radio-tracking programme suggest that predation attempts on oversized prey are not uncommon – even if they threaten the survival of the predator. We explore hypotheses about why snakes attempt to consume such large meals.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	159-162
Number of pages	4
Journal	Austral Ecology
Volume	46
Issue number	1
Early online date	6 Oct 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12956
Publication status	Published - Feb 2021

Keywords

Cape York
constrictor
feeding ecology
Morelia kinghorni
oversized
scrub python

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10.1111/aec.12956

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KW - feeding ecology

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Biting off more than you can chew: attempted predation on a human by a giant snake (Simalia amethistina)

Abstract

Keywords

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