The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division says one of their wildlife technicians found more than what they were looking for during a survey in southeast Georgia.
According to DNR, back in November, a technician searching for eastern indigo snakes found a four-foot-long slithery specimen that had vomited out not one, not two, but three other snakes, including a live rattlesnake.
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DNR said the snake had eaten, then regurgitated a second, and smaller, indigo snake, a young rat snake, and a juvenile eastern diamond-backed rattlesnake, which was still alive.
“This rattlesnake must have been a little too ‘undercooked’ for the indigo snake, considering it was still alive when it came back up,” DNR said in an online statement.
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Indigos are known for hunting other snakes, according to the department.
They said the indigo snake their technician found “had clearly swallowed and then expelled its meal, losing about half a pound in the process.”
While the rat snake was dead, and they thought the juvenile rattlesnake was too, it showed “surprising signs of life an hour later,” when they found it basking in the sun instead of looking for a burrow to hide in.
On top of their surprise at the rattlesnake still being alive, DNR said the snake had also recently eaten a large mouse, showing what officials said was “the indigo’s impressive hunting abilities but also the rattlesnake’s unexpected resilience.”
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