Watch: Massive python devours pet chicken at Toogoom

Insane footage of a chicken being devoured by a giant python has emerged after a snake catcher was called in a frantic last ditch attempt to rescue the pet.

A python devours a pet chicken at Toogoom n the Fraser Coast.

Grisly footage of a pet chicken being devoured by a giant python in regional Queensland has emerged after a snake catcher was called to try to rescue the animal.

Hervey Bay snake catcher Drew Godfrey shared the footage to his Facebook page, which garnered plenty of reactions as viewers watched the chicken slowly being eaten by the coastal carpet python.

Mr Godfrey said he was called out to Toogoom, near Hervey Bay, when the chicken was being devoured by the snake.

He said the chicken’s owners were nice enough to let the snake eat it, because at that stage it would have been a “waste of a chicken” and the snake would have gone hungry.

“It was pretty fascinating seeing nature take its course,” Mr Godfrey said.

He said when he arrived, the snake got a bit spooked and stopped eating, but soon started again.

Snakes were able to separate their jaw bones and stretch the skin in order to eat prey much bigger than might be expected, Mr Godfrey said.

Over the years, he had seen chickens eaten, as well as pet budgies, turkeys and ducks.

One person even lost their pet fish when a snake found its way into a fish tank, Mr Godfrey said.

He said he had not seen any cats or small dogs taken yet, but had heard about it from other snake catchers.

Mr Godfrey said after eating a chicken or a possum, snakes often did not need to eat again for about two weeks.

The footage emerged after a Glenwood woman got a shock when she found herself face-to-face with an eastern brown snake as it scaled the flyscreen at her home south of Maryborough, disabusing her of any notion that venomous snakes cannot or do not climb.

Rhonda Acworth had a near miss when she came face-to-face with an eastern brown snake scaling her fly screen at Glenwood.

“I was petting my cat Bella on the kitchen floor when suddenly she turned away from me and started hissing,” Rhonda Acworth said.

“I turned out to see what was going on and I saw it (the snake) trying to climb through the flyscreen.

“I was so lucky the snake then bundled itself behind the inner and outer windows allowing me to trap it there.”

Not knowing what to do, Mrs Acworth contacted neighbours for help before calling Ed Smith from Gympie Snake Catchers, who confirmed it was a myth that venomous snakes like eastern browns and taipans did not climb.

“They can certainly climb,” Mr Smith said.

“Snakes can climb a tree most certainly. The thought snakes cannot climb is a fantasy.”