Cairns snakes: Python tries to swallow wallaby at Palm Cove

A python’s eyes proved too big for its belly when it tried to make a meal of a wallaby on Cairns’ northern beaches. WATCH THE VIDEO

VICTORIAN holiday-maker Paul Rafferty got a surprise when he encountered an ambitious python endeavouring to swallow a wallaby in the midst of Palm Cove.

“It must have been hungry, it really did try hard, but its eyes were too big for its belly,” Mr Rafferty said.

“It ended up giving up and when we came back from the gym it was gone and there was just the wallaby there.”

Mr Rafferty encountered the snake on Coral Coast Drive on Tuesday morning as he was going to the gym.

This ambitious python bit off more than it could chew in a tangle with a wallaby at Palm Cove. Picture: Paul Rafferty.

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He said the small wallaby did not appear to be alive.

Mr Rafferty estimated the snake measured 2.5m.

Cairns snake catcher Mark Hagan said p ythons were on the move during the wet season and urged residents to ensure small domestic animals were in snake proof environments.

He said snakes would eat domestic cats.

The Department of Environment and Science says Cairns is home several python species and they are non-venomous constrictors, killing by coiling around prey and squeezing until suffocation occurs.

Sightings of the Amethystine python, Australia’s largest snake, are common in the region - their average length is 5m but one was recorded at 8.5m.

Carpet pythons of about 2m are commonly seen on roads, while the much smaller spotted python is most often seen at night in woodlands or rainforest.

Originally published as Cairns snakes: Python tries to swallow wallaby at Palm Cove